Ad Astra Per Aspera
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: Doom's back, and this time, his agenda is clearly hidden. Reed reveals connections with a secret society dedicated to stopping him, but the Illuminati have plans for Sue that no one is pleased with, especially Reed. Jealousy, after all, drives one mad.
1. Prologue

**Now, this story should probably be explained first. It's going to feature characters from X-Men as well, but it is centred around the F4, so I'm posting it here. The reason it features the other characters is because, in the Marvel universe, Reed is a member of a secret society called the Illuminati, and I wanted to use that group for this story. This is different to anything I've ever written before. There's no immediate fluff or happy middles, in fact, I'm downright evil to pretty much everyone in here. I'm using inspiration from a lot of comic storylines that were based on the F4 comics, so hopefully I'll do them justice.  
Angel  
Xxxxxx**

**Chapter 1: (Prologue) Let's Get It Started**

_"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life for you. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth._

_Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulty and fear assail your relationship - as they threaten all relationships at one time or another - remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out storms when clouds hide the face of the sun from your lives - remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight."_

_Blessing of the Apaches_

Remembering her wedding was one of Sue's favourite things to do. She'd first imagined that the day she married Reed would be dramatically spoilt by the press reporter's love for snooping into their lives, but the day had gone without a hitch. Nothing had spoilt it, and the entire day had been wonderful and perfect. Fantastic, even. She had never thought it would be easy to smile all day, even through the tears she shed when her father had given his speech, using the Blessing of the Apaches which his father-in-law had spoken at his own wedding to Sue's mother. Of course, neither Sue nor Reed had much family attending the wedding, but they enjoyed seeing their families getting along and not bickering over small details of the past. One of the mian highlights of the day was seeing Johnny talking casually with Reed, rather than his usual threats of broken bones if he ever hurt her again. Suprisingly, even after Johnny had taken extreme advantage of the alcohol being passed around on trays, this conversation still didn't happen. Johnny and Reed were actually _getting along_. Everything was wonderful, and never, not in a million years, would she have wished for a better day. There were no variables, no fears, no interruptions; only the happiness they deserved finally beginning.

And that happiness was still there, three years on from their wedding. The Baxter Building was still their much-loved home, no matter how many times they came around to the conversation of settling down properly. It was no secret that Sue wanted a considerably normal life for the two of them, especially when they were looking forward to raising a family, but at the end of the day, she found an adrenaline rush in the respect of the crowds as much as her brother did, no matter how much she'd deny it. The Baxter was easily big enough for what had now become a family of five. Alicia had moved in with the Fantastic Four shortly a few months after she began dating Ben, and whilst Johnny still hadn't settled down from his party-filled lifestyle, he had stopped bringing quite so many women home with him at night. The others couldn't decide whether he was genuinely calming down with his short relationships, or whether he was simply running out of women in the city. Reed had considered a teaching position when it had been offered to him from NYU, but the consitency hadn't timed well with the spontaneous superhero lifestyle that he also led. However, he did visit various universities around the country to give lectures on his theories.

It was strange, for such a beautiful summer's day, for Central Park to be considerably empty. The small area they had chosen to walk through was practically void of any tourists, who were probably using the good weather as an incentive for a trip to Liberty Island. Ben and Alicia were first along the path, arm in arm as they discussed Alicia's brilliant reviews for her lastest sculpture exhibition, which had opened three days ago. About twenty paces behind them, walking at a slower pace, Sue and Reed were arm in arm, closely sandwiched together as they spoke soft words to each other. Darting in between the trees around them, sometimes overlapping the path, and occassionally nearly running into either of the couples, was Johnny, who was entertaining his pet dog, Blaze.

Blaze had been the most recent addition to the Fantastic Four household, and by far Johnny's pride and joy. It was rumoured that Blaze had actually replaced Johnny's car in his heart, or at least, that's what his fan websites said. Blaze was a male Afghan Collie, which Sue had given him for Christmas two years before. Johnny had reminded her casually how their father had provided everything they ever needed growing up, but still hadn't let them have a dog, so when Sue had passed a cardboard box in the downtown area, labelled 'Free to loving home' in a child's writing, she'd been unable to resist the last puppy that had been wagging his tail at her. Blaze had a beautiful black coat, and, naturally, Johnny had named his puppy after something fire-related, and for the two weeks following Blaze's arrival, Sue had needed to convince Reed that puppies weren't evil.

Two years on, Reed was more than content with Blaze being at the Baxter Building, so long as he was kept out of his lab. There had been a few incidents during the paper training phase where Blaze had escaped into the lab and relieved herself near some wires on the ground, which had left Reed lecturing Johnny, of all people, on the danger of fire hazards. But now, as he watched the youngest team member so happy as he threw sticks and ran alongside his dog, he was glad that Blaze had come into their lives. After all, it had taught Johnny some responsibility, and Blaze's need to be walked first thing in the morning meant that Johnny had a reason to get out of bed before midday.

Reed smiled, looking out of the corner of his eye at Sue again, who was smiling softly as she looked up at the clear blue sky above them. "It'll be a girl." He aruged for what felt like the millionth time.

"A boy." Sue said simply, lowering her eyes from the sky and giving him a smug expression before looking at the path before them again.

Reed shook his head. "If you look at the consistensy of girls in my family history, then it's only right that our first will be a girl." He attempted to reason with her.

But Sue was not to be deterred. "And if you look at the consistency of boys in _my_ family history, then it's only right that it'll be boy." She pointed out simply.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye again, raising his eyebrow. "Do you _really_ want to argue against one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century?" He challenged her.

"Do you really want to argue against maternal instinct?" She shot back quickly, laughing to herself at the stumped expression on her husband's face.

"You're not even pregnant yet." He reminded her. "You can't use maternal instinct against me." He insisted unfairly.

"We can always go for female intuition then." Sue pointed out to him.

"Sue--"

"Trust me," she said, turning her head to him and winking as they walked, "I've got hundreds of these up my sleeve."

Smiling, Reed shook his head to himself. They caught each others eye as he spoke to her. "You know," he teased her lightly, "you're going to have a hard time explaining to our daughter how you thought she was a boy."

She rolled her eyes, sighing dramatically. "And to think," she mused, "most great minds _want_ a son to continue on the family name."

He moved his arm so that it was no longer looping her own, but rather wrapped around her back and settling on her waist. "Sue, you know I don't mind whether we have a son or a daughter." He reminded her, tilting his head so that he could place a clumsy kiss to her temple.

"I know that." She smiled, putting her own arm in a mimicking position to his. "It's just fun to tease you."

Reed mused on this for a moment, looking at the rest of the family that were enjoying the same beautiful day that they were. One day, he could imagine them walking through Central Park, satisfied and content with their life whilst their children ran through the trees, chasing each other and laughing. No matter how many different times or places he looked into their future, he always imagined them to be happy. The only tears he ever saw in his imagination were the ones of their children that they comforted late in the night because of monsters under the bed or a scary dream. "I think we'll end up with sons and daughters." He thought aloud.

Sue looked at him, taking her eyes off the path whilst Reed continued to watch ahead of them. "Is that so?"

He nodded. "Oh yes. Many of each."

She arched her eyebrow. "You _do_ remember who's carrying these children, _right_?" She pointed out to him.

"Absolutely." He nodded firmly, and Sue laughed at him. "In fact," he continued, "that's why I'm determined for so many, because it's you."

She eyed him scrutinisingly. "Okay, now you're up to something." She realised.

"I'm not up to anything." He said innocently.

"The other day you brought me ice cream in bed for breakfast, and today you want me to have a million babies." She remembered. "Is this a way of telling me to put some weight on?"

He laughed. "No, I just can't wait to have a family with you." He told her softly.

She smiled, looking up at him as they carried on walking. He kept his eyes on the path ahead, but could surely feel her eyes burning against him. She knew that he wanted a child just as badly as she did. They had been trying unsuccessfully for two years of their three year marriage so far. The start of their month was always clouded by a negative pregnancy test, and even after so many attempts, it never got any less heartbreaking to throw a negative test into the trash. Even Johnny and Ben knew what it meant when Reed came into the kitchen silently, and Sue followed, throwing something noisily into the trash, both of them with red eyes. Both of them had been assured that it was nothing to do with the radiation they had been exposed to, and that they were both perfectly capable of having children, but part of Sue still felt like it was her body that was to blame. "Yeah, I know." She mumbled quietly, her eyes dropping as she kept her gaze on their feet.

Giving her a reassuring smile, Reed stopped their walk, turning her in his arms so that they were standing opposite each other. "Sue, don't worry so much." He told her, unable to believe that for once it was he who was telling her not to worry, and not the other way around. He cupped her cheek lightly. "It's going to happen."

She lifted the corners of her lips slightly, but its meaning was pure, and she was about to speak when the sound of a shrill beeping came from Reed's pocket. She sighed as his hand dropped from her cheek and went to his cell phone. They still had the disagreement about how addicted he was to his PDA or cellphone, no matter how many times Johnny had melted his precious gadgets so that he'd have to live without them; he'd simply buy a new one.

"Reed Richards." He answered.

"_Richards, it's Stark_." Came the replying voice, snappy and irritant.

Reed frowned, and stepped away from Sue. Sue also frowned, listening to her husband's voice as he spoke in a quiet and yet urgent tone. "What is it?..._What_?...But you said...You _told_ me this wasn't going to happen..." His voice dropped, and he sounded like he was almost threatening the person on the phone, but Sue couldn't hear what. She could only see a strange look on his face, a fear, almost, that made her uneasy.

Reed hung up the phone, and walked back to Sue, the blood drained from his face. He was silent for a minute, staring at the cellphone in his hands. She placed her hand on his cheek. "Honey?"

He snapped back into life. "We have to get home." He told her. "Something's happened."

**And we dive straight in with the action...please review! I'm going to be cruel and say that I'll only update once I get five reviews. :P Love to you all and Cookies to my first reviewer!! xxxxx**


	2. World Made of Steel

**Okay, so I'm not going to wait for the five reviews, since it's been nearly a week already. Thank you so much for the response!  
****  
First reviewer cookie this time goes to Jmoran12. Here's the update!  
****  
xrubydragonx - Yes, we all love a bit of action! I'm glad you enjoyed the bickering...I love writing bickering, it's so fun! And yes, hands cookie you can have a cookie to!  
****  
Marvelous Mariaah: Of course I meant it...you wait until chapter 6...you're going to absolutely hate me :P And as for the pregnancy...well...there might be a pregnancy popping up somewhere along the line, but whether it's at the beginning, middle or end, I'll leave that a surprise. But prepare yourself, my dear, it might get to the point in this story where you don't want there to be a pregnancy! There's real twist and turns in this one!**

**As always, I'm going to update once I get some reviews, but please don't just add this to your favourites list. If you like it enough to add it, please take a few seconds to drop in a review! **

**Love and cookies!**

**Chapter 2: World Made Of Steel**

_First when there's nothing but a slow, glowing dream,  
__That your fear seems to hide, deep inside your mind,  
__All alone I have cried, silent tears full of pride,  
__In a world made of steel, made of stone._

_Irene Cara - Flash dance (What a Feeling)_

The short walk back to the Baxter Building had been a strange one, to say the least. It had different completely from the leisurely stroll they had taken to get down to the park. Now, their walk was rushed, with Reed walking quickly along the street, desperate to get home, yet at the same time not wanting to cause a panic. Usually, when the Fantastic Four were seen running in a certain direction, people panicked and assumed something life-threatening was happening in that direction. So, instead, he had lowered to a speedy walk, still trying to appear casual despite the fact that it was taking the others a while to keep up with him.

All the time, Sue asked him questions. Questions that he wouldn't answer. What's going on? Who was the phone call from? Why does he look so worried? Is something happening? Why won't he talk to her? Why won't he just answer her, or even look at her?

But it didn't matter what she asked, or how much urgency she put into her voice. Reed would say nothing, and continue to avoid everyone's stares. So, he walked quickly to get home, and left it to the others to apologize to the people he unexpectedly barged into.

When they reached their home, and the elevator door shut behind them, Sue felt that she might finally get some answers out of her husband. "Reed…"

But again, he ignored her. He went straight ahead, not stopping his fast walk until he reached the living room, where he grabbed the remote and turned the television on. Sue frowned, following him, noticing that he hadn't even taken the time to stop and hang his jacket up like the rest of them had.

"Reed, what's going on?" she asked him for at least the fifteen time.

He didn't answer her, but he did turn to a news channel, where the noon time news was getting ready to start.

"Reed, who was that on the phone?"

When he didn't answer again, Sue looked over her shoulder, meeting the gaze of Ben, Alicia and Johnny, who also entered the room. As usual, Blaze padded no more then three feet behind Johnny, and he looked rather pleased with himself for finding his toy ball in the record time of ten seconds since arriving home. However, Sue's confusion was matched by the others, who just shrugged at her.

She looked back at Reed again. "Reed, are you even _listening _to me?"

"Yes," he said, his voice void of emotion as he still refused to look at her, keeping his eyes trained on the television.

"Then would an answer be too much to ask for?"

"If I tell you, you're not going to believe me," he told her, glancing quickly over his shoulder to make sure that they were all in the room, "so you might as well just see for yourself." He cast his eyes back to the television once more, where the opening title sequence for the news programme was just beginning. "Here." He said, gesturing to the television, which they all drew closer to, curiously.

"_Good afternoon. Our top story today. Hundreds of people on the island of Coll in the Scottish Isles of Britain have needed emergency medical treatment after an object from space reportedly plummeted to Earth in a remote area two days ago. Officials are speculating that the object may be a meteorite--"_

"A meteorite?" Ben repeated, looking at Reed as if he were insane. "I know you like space and all, stretch, but that's what all this fuss is about?"

"No, this wasn't it…" Reed said softly, still listening intently.

"_--it is estimate that the object has left a deep crater, although no such proof has been found, and residents of Coll have complained on headaches, vomiting and nausea. However, some experts argue that no such meteorite crashed, and that this is simply a response to fetid gases found to be coming from a nearby crater--"_

"Wow, this is…really boring, Reed," Johnny complained, throwing himself down onto the couch, with Blaze quickly jumping up and settling on the couch beside him.

"_--and in other news today…Von Doom Industries is officially reinstated tomorrow morning at it's previous headquarters in Manhattan--"_

Now, that had their attention.

"Is that who I think it is?" Ben asked, indicating to the regal figure shown shaking hands with the Mayor of New York City.

Sue's eyes widened. "It couldn't be…"

"_--Former company CEO Victor Von Doom will take his place at the top of Von Doom Industries once again, thanks to his diplomatic immunity from home country Latveria. No such questioning has taken place on basis of the former collapse of Von Doom Industries, or the circumstances of his temporary powers, which were similar to those found in the Fantastic Four and stemmed from the same incident on the Von Doom Space Station four years ago--"_

"'_Temporary'_?" Reed questioned.

Sue turned to him in disbelief. "_That's _what was going on?" She asked him. "_That's _what the secret phone call was about?"

Reed nodded, his voice quiet when he spoke. "He's back."

She shook her head, a determination overcoming her. "He can't be back."

"Well, that's him on the TV," Ben pointed out.

"He's supposed to be _dead_!" Sue said rather loudly.

"Well, technically, no," Reed revealed.

She turned to him. "Excuse me?"

Reed got an awkward look on his face, one that only came from trying to explain something technical to them that he wasn't sure they'd understand or, in this case, accept. "We simply encased his body within the shell of his natural armour, which had been melted and then cooled into shape. If he found a way to break free from it, then there's no reason why his physical form wouldn't be harmed in any drastic way. Also," he added, looking rather guilty, "any damage that _was _sustained to his skin has had four years to heal."

"What do they mean by diplomatic immunity?" Johnny asked. "Isn't that something kings get?"

"Yes," Reed nodded.

"How can Vic have that?" Johnny asked, scratching Blaze behind the ear.

"Victor's the legal ruler of Latveria, a small country in Eastern Europe." Reed reminded him.

Johnny thought about this for a moment, and then shrugged. "Nope. Never heard of it."

Sue looked at him incredulously. "You worked for Victor for _two years_, Johnny. How can you have _not _heard of the country when it was all he talked about?"

He smiled at her. "Because I didn't make the mistake of _actually _listening to him."

Sue glared at Johnny, but before it could turn into a sibling row, Ben stepped in. "So, what do we do now?" He asked.

They all looked to their leader for a plan. Mr. Fantastic would know what to do. He'd know how they could get rid of him again. However, the plan he revealed wasn't one that they all wanted to go along with.

"Nothing,"

"_What_?" They all nearly exploded at the same time.

"How can we just sit and do nothing?" Sue asked. "He's _out _there. We _know _what he's capable of--"

"Exactly," Reed said, "but he's not doing anything dangerous."

"He doesn't have to." Sue insisted.

"Yes, he does."

"Reed's right, Susie," Ben said gently.

Johnny looked at him as if he were insane. "You can't be serious!"

"We're a team. A _superhero _team," Ben reminded them. "Superheroes don't go hunting down people who _'might' _do something wrong."

"So, what, we just sit back and wait for him to have another crack at destroying the world?" Johnny asked, shaking his head.

"We can't do anything until he does," Ben told him. "Otherwise it looks like we're out for revenge."

"He sent a _heat-seeking_ _missile _after me!" Johnny cried. "I'm all out for revenge."

Ben stepped forward, challenging him. "Yeah, you wanna teach those fans of yours about revenge?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Johnny asked.

"We're idols now, kid." Ben pointed out. "We're public image. Reporters follow our every move. We can't just jump the gun, not when what we do teaches the kids to copy us."

Johnny scoffed at the idea. "Sounds perfectly good to me. Get a child-army of our followers to kick Vic's ass."

"Grow up."

"Maybe _you _should grow up."

As Ben and Johnny transcended into their usual childish arguments, Sue took a few steps away from the group. Victor was back. The voice in her head echoed it over and over again until she couldn't think of anything else. He was back. What was that going to mean? Would they have to fight him again? It was a strain last time, even if they had only just got their powers. Would four more years experience make any difference to it? It had taken all of them to defeat him. What if they weren't so lucky this time?

Following her to the side of the room, Reed appeared beside her. She watched him as he stepped around, so that he was facing the others over her shoulder, but he paid no attention to them. He put his arms on hers, which were folded tightly across her chest.

"Sue," he said simply.

She took a deep breath, looking down at the ground to the side of them. "Well, I guess they couldn't keep him out in Latveria forever," she mused aloud, trying to sound nonchalant, but it wasn't really working.

"Don't worry," he assured her, his hands rubbing lightly against her arms. "He won't do anything."

She raised her eyes from the floor, challenging him. "We froze him into a statue, Reed," she reminded him, although it wasn't something he could forget so easily. "Do you really think he's come all the way to New York with the intention of leaving us alone?"

Her question posed a good point, but it didn't change the fact that he was her husband. "Sue, you know I wouldn't let anything happen to you," he reminded her.

"Reed--"

"He won't get anywhere near you, I promise." She sighed, and he hugged her against him tightly. She lowered her folded arms and held him in return. "You're safe from him, he won't do anything." To emphasise his care, he kissed the side of her neck, and she sighed against him, her breath against the bare skin of his neck sending shivers down his spine and enhancing his need to protect her. "I won't let him hurt you. Not again."

Sue let herself be vulnerable against him for a moment longer, and then she composed herself, braving herself up to the situation. "Well, I'm going to get started on lunch," she announced. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "do you want a hand?"

She smiled at him softly. "Sure."

She walked towards the kitchen, and he went to follow her. However, as he did, his cell phone rang again. He looked down at the call I.D, seeing the name _'Stark'_ lit up on the LCD screen. Reed sighed, looking forward to where Sue was entering the kitchen, and then at Johnny and Ben, who were still bickering, only now they had involved Blaze's chew toy, and the dog was sitting between them as they threw it forcefully at each other, watching as it flew from one to the other.

Reed shut his eyes for a moment, and then turned off his cell phone without even answering the call.


	3. Ground Control

**Chapter 3: Ground Control**

_This is Major Tom to ground control,  
__I'm stepping through the door  
__And I'm floating in a most peculiar way  
__And the stars look very different today_

_David Bowie - Space Oddity_

Night, he mused, had always had an air of peace around it. Nights like this he could compare to those he spent working late at night in the lab. He'd been in the lab for most of the afternoon, but not for working purposes. No, this time he was taking phone calls, always glancing over his shoulder to make sure that none of the others were there to hear his call. The sound of footsteps behind him in the hall was enough to make him cover up the conversation and make it seem as if he were ordering spare parts to complete he latest invention, when in reality he was talking to somebody of much more importance than a mechanic.

When he left the laboratory, it was gone midnight. He hadn't realised it to be so late until the final call had come through, and ended, rather abruptly. He sighed the second he put the phone down, wishing that this wasn't about to happen, especially now, but he knew that it was important and, most of all, unavoidable, so he had left the lab, and gone to his bedroom.

Sue had been in bed for hours now. After dinner, she had announced that she was going to have an early night, because the revelations of the day were playing on her mind and she had a headache. Of course, this wasn't the sort of early night that Reed was invited to join her for. He'd offered to go and lie down with her, so that he could make sure she was okay, and they could talk, but she insisted she was just tired, and that she'd feel better after a good nights sleep.

That's how he'd ended up lingering in the doorway to their bedroom, just watching her.

Their bedroom was the typical marital bedroom, in his mind. The walls were a calm peach colour, and the carpet was a similar shade, just a fraction darker. The bed sheets were white, and the duvet cover that lay above them at night shimmered with a silvery tone to the white material. Beside the bed on either side were bedside tables, the one on Sue's side holding a lamp for where she usually read before sleeping, and the one on Reed's side laying home to an alarm clock. Both of them had drawers on, but there was nothing really inside of them. Sue's, he knew contained whatever book she was reading at the time, and her address book, but his side rarely contained anything more than the watch he took off before he went to sleep. On the other side of their bedroom, a large window was underlined with a two-person window seat. Of course, it was designed to seat two people, but it would usually end up with the pair of them curled up together on one side, with Sue's back against his chest as they sat there late at night watching the stars together. He smiled softly at the memories of late night conversations, mainly plans for their future, sweet nothings, that had taken place on that seat.

Sue was lying in the bed, curled up on her side beneath the blankets, which were raised only to her hips. The white sheets and silvery blankets contrasted to the navy shirt of his that she wore, and whilst he couldn't see through the blankets, he knew that she was most likely wearing a pair of his sweat pants as well. He never really used them, and usually when she went to bed with headaches from over-using her powers, she'd curl up in his clothes for the night. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered whether or not she'd chosen the sweat pants, other than for comfort. The shirt alone would have been enough to cover her completely, as it had been a baggy one on him, and was clearly swamping her thin frame.

The important thing, though, was that in sleep, her face had a wash of relaxation covering it, particularly with her features facing towards the open window, which was letting in a soft breeze as well as casting moonlight over her flawless skin. Her blonde hair was spread out on the white pillow underneath her, almost like a halo, which made her look ten times more beautiful than any angel he could imagine.

He chose not to close the window, knowing that it was still rather warm for that day, and he didn't want the room to get too stuffy, but he silently padded across the room to her and looked down at his wife of three years. Her lips were parted ever so slightly, and he could see the gentle rising and falling of her chest where the blanket was pulled down.

He reached down, pulling the blankets further up her body. He didn't want her to get a chill from the night breeze she was letting in. Settling the blanket over her shoulder, she snuggled under then new warmth, letting out a content sigh. When he realised that she wasn't going to wake up, he smiled, watching her fondly. She hadn't lost any of her beauty since they had first met, and he was starting to believe that she never would. She still had the same captivating charm that he always found himself surrendering to.

At that moment, when he considered how lucky he was to have her for his wife, guilt flooded over him. He finally understood that what he was doing was lying to her. Lying to his wife. Before, he'd only considered it to be keeping a fraction of the truth from her, but now, in her vision of innocence, he realised that he was straight up lying to her. She didn't deserve to be lied to like this.

He leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, and allowing his lips to longer on her skin for a moment. "I'm _so_ sorry," he whispered to her, and then he walked back to the door, silently.

He didn't look back when he left the room, knowing that guilt would overflow him into staying where he was if he gazed back at her still sleeping form. Instead, he walked out of the bedroom, out of the apartment, and out of the Baxter Building. Outside, as it happened every single time, there was a car waiting for him, waiting to take him to his destination. He climbed into the car, without a word to the driver, who he knew from experience would never speak back to him, and as the car started up, Reed looked up at the Baxter Building, to where his wife was sleeping.

"I'm sorry, Sue." He whispered up at the building.

Up in the bedroom, Sue rolled over in the bed, oblivious to her husband's absence.

**Okay, I know I'm being kinda sketchy on the details at the moment, but I swear in the next chapter all is made clear!!!**


	4. Sign of Life

**Chapter 4: Sign of Life**

_I'm looking to the sky to save me,  
__Looking for a sign of life  
__Looking for something to help me burn out bright.  
__I'm looking for complications  
__I'm looking 'cause I'm tired of lying  
__Make my way back home  
__When I learn to fly.  
----__Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly_

The road was silent for a long time, and Reed was surprised that there were very few cars on the road around them. New York was supposed to be the city that never slept, but tonight, it seemed, the city was as tired as his wife had been when he left. There were no interruptions and no unexpected detours on their way to their usual destination, and Reed knew his ride in a car with blacked out windows was over when they turned out of Graymalkin Lane and into a long driveway marked with gates and a guard booth.

The window Reed was sat beside was lowered, revealing the intercom that spoke in a short, brisk voice. _"Please state your name and your reason of business," _it said, the voice crackled by the electronics.

"It's Reed Richards, the Professor is expecting me."

"_Of course, Dr. Richards. Welcome back to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."_

The gates were opened, and the driver took them through to the driveway. Reed never ceased to wonder how long this driveway was, as it took a fair couple of minutes to reach the school building once they had set the gates behind them. Still, when they reached the far end of the driveway, Reed stepped out of the car, as he usually did, and looked up at the school building with a sense of awe. When he had first arrived at this place four years ago, he hadn't imagined it to look so…normal.

He hadn't even been aware of the growing mutant population in the world until they had encountered their own share of genetic abnormalities, and that had been when Charles Xavier had contacted him and invited him to attend a meeting at the school. These meetings became regular, once a month; as regular as the failed pregnancy tests that Sue threw into the trash. Even now, when he looked up at the building, he felt a sense of pride towards the Professor. Xavier had done a wonderful thing by setting up a school for the mutants of the world. Even though every student and faculty member here was comfortable with the word 'mutant', Reed still felt it to seem rather cruel, and tried to avoid using it as much as possible.

He walked through the entrance to the courtyard, taking note of a large memorial statue that had recently been built. It contained names of fallen ex-students of the school. He knew because the last time he was here, he'd seen Charles inspecting the construction of it. It had been created from a large slab of marble by two of the older students, who had used their abilities to shape the stone.

He knocked on the large front door, and to his surprise, it was answered almost immediately by an African woman with white hair.

"Dr. Richards?" She enquired.

"Miss Munroe," he said, remembering Ororo from previous visits. "It's good to see you again."

"I take it Charles has another of his meetings?" she asked, softening from her initial surprise.

"Very last minute," he confirmed, "are the others not here?"

"They probably are," she told him. "However, they _rarely _use the front door," she added with a smile. "Come on in."

Reed entered, and Ororo closed the door behind him. He shuddered as the instant warmth hit him. Even though it was technically still summer, there was a chill in the air; a chill that made him regret leaving the bedroom window open for Sue before he left.

"He's in his office," Ororo told him. "Do you remember how to get there?"

He nodded. "Of course. I'm sorry if I disturbed you," he apologized.

She waved off his apology, however. "Don't worry about it," she assured him. "_Someone _has to keep the youngsters in bed."

Ororo walked away, and he smiled after her before heading to Charles's office. Of course he remembered the way. It was only a matter of going up the stairs and walking past the atrium. When he reached the office and raised his hand to knock on the door, a voice inside his head stopped him.

"_Come in, it's open."_

He didn't think he was ever going to get used to hearing the Professor's voice inside his head, but still, he opened the door, and walked in. Five men sat inside the room, all of different appearance and stature. However, it was the man furthest from him that greeted him.

"Nice of you to join us, _finally_," he said, irritancy lining his voice.

Reed looked at the man who spoke to him. He and Tony Stark had never really seen eye to eye, despite being students at the same college. Whilst Reed had entered the MIT program at the age of sixteen, Tony Stark had entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at only fifteen years old, putting him in the year above Reed. He'd inherited his father's company, Stark Industries at the age of twenty-one, when his parents had been killed in a car accident, and one of his first moves have been to buy out the company that made the faulty brakes on his parents car, and correct the physical problem.

He was known more commonly for his alter-ego of Iron Man, however. During the Gulf War, Stark was caught in a booby trap, and captured by a Vietnamese warlord name Wong Chu. Stark was then pressed into building weapons for him, along with the famed physicist Ho Yinsen. However, at the same time, Stark and Yinsen used the workshop to secretly design and construct a suit of powered armour, an iron exoskeleton that gave Stark tremendous strength as well as other abilities. When he finally returned to the U.S., he continued to improve the armour, establishing a dual identity as Iron Man.

But still, as respectable as he was, Reed found himself faced with teenage quarrels and disputes when it came to Stark. "Unlike _you_," he reminded Stark calmly, "I had a wife to leave behind tonight."

"How _is _Susan?" came a voice from Reed's right.

Namor was more commonly known to those outside of the ground as the Sub-Mariner. However, there were very few people outside of their gathering that knew him to be in existence. As Emperor of the lost city of Atlantis, he wasn't on ground for very long at a time. Still, however, Reed was always curious into the concern he showed for Sue when he had never met her before.

"She's fine, thank you," Reed told him simply.

Tony smirked at him. "Did you tuck her into bed before leaving, lie to her about where you were going?" Reed simply glared at him. "Oh, so she _doesn't _know you're here, then?" he realised.

"So much for representing a united front," spoke the man to the left of Tony.

Dr. Stephen Strange was another that Reed had a general inability to get on well with, however, this time it wasn't for a juvenile reason, but instead the fact that Stephen rejected a scientific nature. His focus instead was on the mystical and non-scientific side of life. The man beside Stephen, Blackagar Boltagon, known to them as Black Bolt, spoke in a similar tone.

"Perhaps our united front would collaborate more efficiently if we could get through the initial greetings _without _chiding Richards for taking a wife," he suggested.

Tony scoffed. "Wives are liberties," he complained.

Reed shot him a look. "Sue is _not _a liberty," he defended.

"But she certainly seems to be a weakness, doesn't she?" Tony teased him.

Before Reed could rise to the bait that Tony had laid for him, Charles stepped in. "_Enough_." He said simply, putting an end to the squabbling. "Please, Reed, sit," he said calmly, as Reed fell into the last available chair around the table. "We do not have time for the squabbling tonight. Tonight, our union is more important than ever."

The union, as Charles referred to it, was the Illuminati. The group had formed many years prior to Reed's invitation to join four years ago, but it was only when Tony and Blackagar suggested that they formed a government for the mutant world that it was brought to light. Namor was the first to refuse, on the grounds that too many mutants are violent outsiders. Charles refused on the grounds that mutants are already feared and hated, and if Tony thought that he could win the war brewing with iconic superheroes, it would result in heroes being more feared and hated as much as the 'bad' mutants. Dr. Strange also refused, on the grounds that too many of their kind are anti-establishment, and that the group Tony had proposed would be a form of counter-establishment. However, they did agree to exchange information regularly.

"Mutants everywhere are going into hiding," Charles revealed. "We're not sure why."

"Can't you get inside their heads and ask them?" Tony asked him.

Charles shook his head. "I will not pray into someone's mind without their permission unless it is in the interest of their safety or our own."

"How do we know that it isn't?" Reed proposed.

Charles raised a single eyebrow, giving Reed the impression that he was asking the right question. "It would appear that the general public know something we do not."

Blackagar looked to Charles. "You don't believe this to be a coincidence with Von Doom's return to America?"

Namor answered the question for him. "Von Doom possesses abilities just like our own. Why would he target his own kind and send them into hiding?"

"A fair point," Stephen agreed.

"Victor's capable of turning against his own people," Reed pointed out. "I know that first hand."

One again, Tony turned to Reed with a withering expression on his face. "Victor turned against you because of a silly school-boy quarrel that lasted too long," he reminded Reed. "Oh, and wasn't it over a _woman_?" he teased.

Charles, once again, stepped in before Reed could. "I though we'd agreed to leave Susan out of this for tonight."

"Who knows," Tony said, leaning back in his seat. "Perhaps she might be able to serve some use to us."

"Excuse me?" Reed challenged him.

Tony eyed Reed triumphantly for a moment, and then addressed Charles. "I believe we can use her intelligence and her naivety on this."

"Naivety?" Reed questioned.

"What do you propose?" Blackagar asked him.

Tony took advantage of the glare that Reed sent his way. "Surely the most efficient way to gain an understanding of what Von Doom plans to do would be for someone to infiltrate the VDI headquarters?"

"Victor's intelligent," Reed said, not dropping his glare for a second. "He's realise what was going on."

"Not necessarily," Stephen said, understanding what Tony was suggesting. "If the infiltrator was working amongst him, becoming an employee and placed in a position of trust under his control, then he would have no reason to doubt them."

"Precisely," Tony nodded.

"It's a risky plan," Charles pointed out. "One that would require heavy preparation."

"It's _too _risky," Reed insisted. "Victor isn't one to let things go lightly. He'll kill if he feels like it."

"Which is exactly why it needs to be someone he can _trust_." Tony explained.

Blackagar nodded uncertainly. "Finding someone whom Victor will confide in would be difficult."

"Not as hard as you might think," Tony said, his gaze falling on Reed again with an expression with made Reed uncomfortable.

"If you're going to suggest what I think you're going to," Reed warned him. "_Don't_."

But this didn't stop him. "Susan has been an employee of his before, correct?"

"You can't be serious…"

"In fact, as Director of Genetics Research, she would have been in a very trusting position to Von Doom." Tony continued.

"This has nothing to do with--"

"Wasn't he _in love_ with her, Reed?" Tony interrupted.

"Tony." Charles said firmly, before Reed felt the need to injure Tony. "What, exactly, are you proposing?"

"Susan should serve as our infiltrator," he suggested. "Von Doom has a known weakness for her, and she'd easily be reinstated to a position where she could gain the knowledge we'd require."

"He poses a strong point," Blackagar agreed.

"I don't care," Reed shook his head. "Sue's not getting involved in this."

"Why not?" Tony challenged him. "Afraid she might find out where you've been sneaking off to?"

He shook his head. "I won't put her in a position where she's in danger. _Not _my wife. And _not _near Victor."

"So, who do you suggest we use?" Tony asked him.

"Anyone. I don't care," Reed told him, "but Sue isn't being brought into this."

"We should take a vote," Stephen suggested, when all that was being accomplished was a dispute between Reed and Tony.

"All those in favour of Susan acting as infiltrator on behalf of the Illuminati?" Blackagar announced.

Reed watched in despair as Blackagar, Stephen and, of course, Tony, raised their hands. But, thankfully, that created a 3-3 vote. It could only be decided with the majority. But, just when he was starting to think that he had gotten away with this one, Namor raised his hand, adding his to the vote.

"No…" Reed said slowly.

"It seems we have the majority vote." Tony announced with a smug grin.

Reed turned to Charles, his face a picture of helplessness. "Charles…"

"It is undeniably a good plan," he admitted.

He shook his head. "Not my _wife_," he whispered to him.

But Charles held strong. "Perhaps we should speak about this properly tomorrow." Tony smiled, and Reed looked at him in dismay. "Reed, you should bring the rest of your team with you."

As the rest of the Illuminati stood from their seats and began to leave, Reed stayed in his seat. Running his hands over his face, he couldn't help but think back to the promises he'd made Sue that morning.

_You know I won't let anything happen to you._

_He won't get anywhere near you, I promise._

_You're safe from him, he won't do anything._

_I won't let him hurt you. Not again._

Now, he was in trouble.


	5. When Everything Else Is Gone

**Chapter 5: When Everything Else Is Gone**

_Sing this song_

_Remind me that we'll always have each other_

_When everything else is gone._

_ Incubus - Dig._

The decision made by the majority vote at the Illuminati gathering kept Reed awake all night. For at least an hour after he had returned home, with thankfully no one noticing his absence, he had remained in the doorway, watching his wife in the same way he had done just before he had left for the meeting. Part of him was aching to go and lie beside her, to draw comfort from the fact that she was there beside him before the decision of the Illuminati would clearly drive a wedge between them that wouldn't heal for a long time. The bigger part of him, however, was to ashamed to go and lie down in the same bed as her. Despite knowing that he had played no part in the group's decision, he couldn't bear the guilt that would overcome him the second he would take her in his arms.

Needless to say, as the Fantastic Four gathered in the kitchen for breakfast the next morning, there was a different silence that overtook the team leader. Usually at breakfast, there was a routine, a pattern they'd fallen into over the years that had never really been decided on, but had happened all the same.

Sue and Reed would always be the first people up. Sue would start breakfast, still insisting that a good morning was dependant on a good breakfast. Next, Ben would rise for his breakfast, usually with the smell of Sue's breakfast waking him up. Last to surface would be Johnny, who would grumble out of his room complaining about the presence of sunlight, followed, as always, by Blaze, and despite the owner's complaining, the pup would always be happy and perky in the mornings.

On this morning, Reed stood beside Sue whilst they both prepared the breakfast together. Usually, he would help her, but this morning he was blandly buttering the toast, an emotionless expression on his face. Sue kept glancing at him sideways as she cooked some bacon and eggs, noting the dark circles underneath his eyes as well as the strange expression.

"Reed," she spoke quietly, "are you okay?"

He looked up at the sound of her voice, giving her a smile that she could easily see through. "Of course," he assured her, "I'm fine."

She wasn't convinced, and kept her eyes on her husband. Without looking away, she spoke to her brother. "Johnny, can you go and get the mail for me, please?" She asked him.

Johnny looked up from where he had been glancing over the newspapers sports page. "What am I, your _slave_?" He demanded playfully.

"Johnny," she said simply, looking at him.

Whilst Johnny clearly had no attention span on the matter, Ben took notice of the look she was giving him. He knew what she wanted, and it wasn't the mail. She wanted to be alone with Reed for a moment. Sensing that this probably had something to do with the bombshell of Victor's return, Ben stood up.

"Come on, kid," he announced.

Johnny looked up at him. "_What_? I'm hungry," he complained.

"Move. _Now_." Ben told him.

Johnny groaned, and they both left the kitchen, much to Johnny's annoyance. Blaze took one look at his master leaving the room, before running after him, hoping to get some fun and games out of it. When they were gone, Sue rounded on Reed, turning to face him fully.

"Reed," she began, but he cut her off.

"Honestly, it's nothing," he assured her, giving her the same false smile.

"Don't do the _'nothing' _thing with me, Reed," she told him tiredly.

He placed the knife down on the kitchen counter, having finished buttering the last of the toast and faced her fully. He leaned in, kissing her gently. "Sue, _honestly_, there's nothing for you to worry about," he told her gently. "I just…didn't get much sleep last night, that's all," he revealed.

Her face softened in understanding. "I thought you said there was nothing to worry about?" She half-teased him.

"I know," he nodded. "But when it comes to _you_, I'm always going to worry."

"About me?" she tested him.

"_For _you," he corrected her, leaning in and kissing her again. "I'm fine. I promise."

Looking more convinced, Sue smiled a little. She was about to speak again when her brother's voice called in from beyond the doorway.

"Are we allowed to come back in yet?" He asked loudly. "I'm starving and the smell of food is _torturing _me."

Reed sighed, smiling and rolling his eyes; a notion that made Sue laugh along with him. "Yes, you can come back," Reed told him.

"Good," Johnny said, to announce his presence as he returned into the kitchen and went over to one of the ground-level cupboards, "because the dog needs feeding."

Reed held in another sigh and spoke quietly to Sue. "How is that you bring home the _one _dog in Manhattan who eats as much as your brother does?" He asked her.

"Hey!" Johnny protested from across the room. "Blaze is a growing dog and needs plenty of food for nourishment."

As Sue and Reed placed the various breakfast plates down on the table, Reed spoke up when he sat down. "As we're all together, there's something I need to talk you about," he started.

Ben looked up from the bacon sandwich he'd created. "Would this have something to do with all those secret phone calls you took yesterday?" he asked.

"Yes, actually," Reed revealed.

At the phrase 'secret phone calls', Sue frowned a little. "Reed--"

"They were from Charles Xavier," Reed explained.

"Xavier?" Johnny questioned, his mouth half-full with chewed food. "Ain't that the guy who runs the school for special kids?"

Sue gave her brother a withering expression. "His school is for _gifted children_, Johnny. Children who were born with abilities like ours," she turned to Reed. "Why did he call you?"

"Charles is one of the members of a group known as the Illuminati. They're a sorts of government," he explained, at Johnny's second confused expression of the morning, "an action group that protects members of the public with genetic abilities from the dangers posed by everyday society. They also monitor and control those of us who choose to use our powers for illegal reasoning. They want to meet with us today."

"Why us?" Ben asked.

"Because of our history with Victor," Reed told them.

"They've been monitoring Victor?" Sue asked, amazed that people actually knew he had been on the brink of returning.

Reed nodded, confirming her suspicions. "They have been ever since he first arrived back in Latveria."

"And now they want _our _help?" Johnny realised.

"They think they have a way to find out what he's planning to do now that he's got his company back, and they need our help with that," Reed revealed, remembering their plan of action with the weight of lead dropping in his stomach.

Johnny looked at him unfairly. "So, what, we've gotta _share _the ass-kicking with a _government_?"

"They're _monitoring_, Johnny," Reed reminded him tiredly.

Johnny turned back to his breakfast. "I don't _do _monitoring, I do ass-kicking," he told them. "Especially when it comes to metal-nuts like _Victor_."

"All they're asking is that we hear them out," Reed pointed out to them.

"Well," Sue announced, smiling at him confidently, "We can do _that_, can't we?"

As Sue went back to her own breakfast, a smile on her face from knowing that people were willing to take action against Victor, Reed's guilt increased further. She had no idea what she'd been set up for.

----

Hours later, they were preparing to leave for their meeting at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. However, whilst Ben was getting ready after visiting Alicia for the morning, and Johnny was making sure that there was nothing in the living room capable of being chewed into nothing by Blaze, Sue confronted Reed in their bedroom. He'd been putting on his suit jacket over his shirt when she closed the bedroom door, walking up to him and stopping a few inches before him.

"Reed, please, talk to me," she asked him softly, keeping her voice quiet despite the fact that she'd closed the door behind her.

"About what?" he asked her, feigning innocence.

"_Please_, Reed," she begged him.

"Sue, I'm fine---"

"No, you're _not _fine," she pointed out to him, and her abruptness stopped him mid-excuse. "You look like you haven't slept all night. I haven't seen you look this nervous since the morning of our M.I.T. finals." He sighed, knowing that she was right. He hadn't slept because of the guilt, only he couldn't tell her that. At his sigh, Sue reached her hand and took hold of his. "Reed, please, you're scaring me," she admitted. "I don't like seeing you this way."

"Sue, look--"

"I'm your wife, Reed," she reminded him softly, "talk to me."

At this, Reed reached out for her, bringing her into a crushing hug. She returned the hold, wrapping her arms around his waist whilst he did the same, his elasticised arms wrapping around her several times before settling upon themselves. After a moment of their fierce embrace, Reed pressed his lips to the side of her neck rather roughly, but not enough to hurt her. She knew this sort of embrace, she knew this kiss.

He was scared.

"Reed, what--"

"I love you, Sue," he croaked out against the bare skin of her neck.

"I love you too--"

"No, Sue," he interrupted her, "I _love _you. More than anything," he sighed heavily, "you won't _ever _forget that, will you?"

She smiled lightly. "You're my husband, Reed, how could I forget that?"

"I love you," he repeated. "I don't ever want to fail you."

She pulled away from the embrace, looking up so that he could see her reassuring smile. Leaning up to him, she placed her lips against his, lingering there for a moment before pulling back. "Nothing you do will _ever _make me feel failed by you," she whispered against his lips.

As she turned and left the bedroom, Reed grimaced, unseen by her.

If only she knew.


	6. Standing On The Edge

**Chapter 6: Standing On The Edge**

_Maybe if I knew all the things that it took to save us,_

_I could fix the pain that bleeds inside of me._

_Look in your eyes to see something about me,_

_I'm standing on the edge and I don't know what else to give._

_ Enrique Iglesias - Do You Know (Ping Pong Song)_

This time when the car with tinted black windows drove up the driveway just off of Graymalkin Lane, Reed didn't take time to let his mind wander onto the achievements of Charles Xavier's school. There was no sense of awe, but rather a sense of dread. And this time, when he crossed the courtyard, he was not alone, and this only served to remind him of the danger of their current decision, and how it could lead his team members to have their own names carved into the phoenix-shaped memorial statue in the centre of the courtyard.

Reed's silence still worried Sue, who kept glancing with concerned eyes at her husband, but he never returned her gaze. When he knocked on the door, he took a deep breath, and she saw him close his eyes, just for a moment, taking the time to psyche himself up in the same way he'd used to do when they were giving presentations in college lectures.

"So, how are we going to kick his ass this time?" Johnny asked, as they settled on the step before the main entrance.

"That's what we're here to find out," Reed explained to him simply.

The door was opened by a feral-looking man, with piercing eyes laden with suspicion as he looked at them from inside the door. "You lookin' for someone?" He asked them, wondering if they were going to attempt to sell him something.

"Dr. Reed Richards, we're here to see Professor Xavier," Reed introduced himself.

The man looked between each of them suspiciously. "He expectin' you?"

Reed nodded. "He invited us, so I hope he's expecting us."

"Ah, Dr. Richards," Charles's voice came from the doorway, and the greeting man stepped back to reveal Charles in his wheelchair just behind him. "I'm so glad you could make our appointment." He turned to the man beside him. "Thank you for getting the door, Logan."

Now revealed to be Logan, the man disappeared, but not before shooting a challenging look at Johnny after sniffing the air. When he had finished sniffing and glaring, he simply raised a single, daring eyebrow at Johnny, and then left the confused young man.

Charles invited the team in, and in the lobby area, they started to become acquainted with each other. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting the rest of you," Charles smiled. "I'm Charles Xavier, the headmaster of this facility. You must be Mrs. Richards," he smiled at Sue, extending his hand to her.

She took his hand, smiling at him. "Yes, but please, call me Susan."

He nodded. "You must forgive me for bringing up the subject of rumours, but I must insist that in your case, they are correct," he told her.

"Not bad, I hope," Sue grimaced lightly.

"On the contrary," Charles assured her, "you are every detail as beautiful as your husband describes you to be, and not to mention one of the most brilliant minds this country has seen," he complimented.

Sue's cheeks shimmered out of visibility for a moment, an action that had replaced blushing since she had inherited her powers from the cosmic storm. "That's Reed who is the brilliant mind, not me," she pointed out to him.

"Do not be mistaken, Susan," Charles chided her in the same way that she remembered her father to do when she was a child. "It takes one great mind to love another for what it truly is." Sue smiled at his words, and Charles turned to the younger man standing beside her. "Jonathan Storm, I presume."

"How did you guess?" He smirked. "Do I smell of ash or something?"

"No, but the room is considerably warmer where you are standing," he smiled, shaking Johnny's hand before turning to Ben. "And you must be Ben Grimm," he deducted.

"That must have been a giveaway as well," Ben realised, shaking the elder man's hand with care as not to crush it.

"I know you more by appearance than by name, to be sure, but that may be because of the vast quantity of action figures some of our younger students own of you," Charles revealed.

Johnny, thrilled at the concept, nudged Ben in the side, ignoring the fact that he grazed his elbow through his jacket. "See!" He told him in an excited whisper. "I told you that toy company would make us big!"

Ben lowered his voice so that only Johnny heard his threat. "This is a school, match stick. Don't make me clobber you."

"If you'll follow me," Charles invited, turning his electric wheelchair down the hall, "we'll go somewhere where we won't be interrupted."

"You expecting a riot, or something?" Johnny teased as the followed him.

"No," Charles explained. "But I do have a student who can walk through walls."

He lead them towards what looked like a wall, but, after looking from side to side and checking that the corridor was empty, he had opened the wall into what appeared to be an elevator. Ben grimaced at the thought, but found that when he stepped in, it didn't come up with the familiarly embarrassing 'maximum weight exceeded'. Instead, it accepted his weight, and he was pleased not to hear the sound of metal groaning beneath him.

When they stepped off the elevator at what appeared to be the basement level, they were thoroughly surprised that such a traditional looking boarding school had such technological advancements in their basement.

"This is all part of the school?" Sue questioned in awe as they followed Charles down the wide, metallic halls.

"No, we don't allow the students into this part of the facility," Charles revealed to her. "They know that it is here, but they have no means of accessing this level."

"What about that kid you said could walk through walls?" Johnny challenged him.

Charles smiled to himself, admiring the young man's question. "Thankfully, she hasn't found the right location of the passage," he mused aloud, "but it isn't for lack of trying, I assure you."

Charles led them into a side room, where four men were sitting down at one end of a long table. "Now," Charles announced to the Fantastic Four. "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here today."

"We know it's to do with Victor," Ben told him.

"That would be correct," Charles said, motioning to the empty seats at the table. "Please, sit. Make yourselves comfortable."

The team all took seats further down the table from the rest of their company, but left no seats unoccupied between them. Charles took the head of the table, surrounded on either side of him by the rest of his team. Reed and Ben took seats on one side, and Johnny and Sue on the other side of the table. At this time, Sue cast another worried glance at her husband, but he was still quiet and avoiding her gaze. Was he really this worried about Victor?

She was about to whisper her concern to him when Charles began speaking again. "Let me introduce you to the rest of the organisation," he said, motioning to their guests in turn. "This is Tony Stark, head of Stark Enterprises, which you may be aware of. Blackagar Boltagon, more commonly known as Black Bolt. Namor, Prince of Atlantis, and Dr. Stephen Strange."

They said their greetings, which were short, and it was Johnny who dived straight into the obvious question. "So, what is this Illuminati thing?" He asked, leaning back in his chair comfortably. "I mean, like, what is it you do?"

"We're a secret organisation that monitors and polices every illegal mutant activity on the Earth," Charles explained to him.

"You mean, like Vic's?"

Blackagar nodded at Johnny. "You are a fast learner."

Sue leaned forward slightly. "Reed said that you were a form of government," she remembered.

"You have to understand, Susan, that the term 'government' automatically puts us against the government running the country under the President," Charles explained carefully.

"How so?"

It was Stephen Strange that took up the answer. "The human government would not take kindly to a rival government that is formed primarily of mutant kind. It would cause a conflict of power."

"So, then, surely you must answer to some other form of government?" Sue realised.

"No," Tony said simply.

"No?" Sue repeated in a questioning tone. "There's no government involvement here, even though you're policing illegal activities?"

"They started asking too many questions," Tony explained vaguely.

"Well, then, who pays for all of this?" Ben asked him.

"Stark Enterprises," Tony revealed.

Johnny frowned in confusion. "And you just…watch people?" He questioned. "People like us?"

"Observation is the heart of our endeavour," Charles nodded, pressing a button before him on the table, and in the centre of the table, just to the side of Johnny's elbow, a hologram revealed itself in the centre of the table. It showed a long walkway, with a circular platform at the end. "This is a device called Cerebro that I invented several years ago," Charles explained to them. "With Cerebro, I can locate any mutant on the planet at any given time. Some of them, we keep under constant surveillance."

"Like Victor," Ben realised.

"Yes, but we've recently had reason to believe that he's started to have contact with Eric Lehnssehr, another mutant, and one not known for his passiveness," Charles told them regretfully.

"What makes you think that?" Ben asked.

"Von Doom has worked out how to shield himself from our watch," Charles revealed, his eyes settling on the blonde woman at the end of the table, "and that's where Susan comes in."

Sue looked away from the hologram, and her eyes snapped to the man at the end of the table. "Me?" she asked, frowning.

"As you are no doubt aware by now, Von Doom has reclaimed control of VDI," Tony pointed out.

"Sure, it's all over the news," Ben nodded.

"Part of Von Doom's first action of control are to completely re-staff the organisation from what it previously was," Tony revealed. "He's out for new employees, and he's being very particular about who he's letting in."

"I'm sorry. What does this have to do with me?" Sue asked.

"An old student of mine is working for us undercover," Charles explained, "and as of this morning has been accepted as an employee within the genetics department."

"Susan," Tony told her, casting a brief glance at Reed first, "we'd like you to do the same."

She looked blankly at him. "Excuse me?"

"Working for Victor Von Doom means that you are under his control in the public eye," Tony continued to explain his plan. "You'll eat where he tells you, live where he tells you, and thanks to a more recent development in his company policy, you'll get approval for any expenditure over one hundred dollars."

Sue shook her head, frowning uncontrollably as she tried to process this information. "Wait, you want me to go and work for Victor?" she asked, as if the idea was absurd.

"Yes,"

"No way," Johnny cried out, snapping forward from where he had been reclining lazily in the chair.

"Mr. Storm--"

"Do you have any idea what that guy did to us?" Johnny asked him.

Tony simply smiled. "Considering the history of the situation, Susan is the perfect candidate for the position."

"I can't do it," Sue shook her head. "I won't."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Richards," Tony told her, "but I'm afraid there isn't any other way."

Sue took in a deep breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it shakily. When she spoke again, her voice wavered. "Why me?"

"We need someone who would be employed in a position of trust," Tony explained. "Someone who Von Doom might trust with valuable information that could help us to prevent whatever it is he's got planned."

Sue scoffed at the idea. "Well, in case you didn't read the news a few years ago, that person isn't going to be me," she brushed off. "Trust is something that Victor and I could never have again."

"Well, Susan, you're just going to have to create the illusion that he can trust you," Tony said simply.

She shook her head again, more forcefully this time. "I won't work for him," she told them. "Find someone else."

"Unfortunately, there is no one else," Stephen told her. "At least, no one as apt for the position are you are."

"I don't care," Sue said. "I won't do it. What about the team? I can't work for Victor and be part of the Fantastic Four."

"No, you couldn't," Tony confirmed.

There was a short silence, where Sue realised just, exactly, what they were really asked her to do. "What, so, you're telling me I have to leave the team now?"

"For the duration of this, yes," Tony nodded

"But that would mean--"

"Moving out of the Baxter Building, yes."

"But what about my family?" Sue asked quietly.

There was another silence, and Sue realised that she wasn't going to get an answer she was going to like. Charles leaned forward, his voice gentle. "Susan,"

"What about my husband?" She asked, getting slightly angry now. "Are you planning on making me abandon my marriage as well?"

"Only in illusion," Tony nodded.

Heartbroken, Sue's breath escaped her. "What?!"

"With you moving out of the Baxter Building and taking up employment with Von Doom, your relationship with your husband will no doubt be questioned," Tony pointed out to her. "We'd have to create the illusion to the public that your marriage is more of a …separation."

"What, so they gotta fake a divorce?" Ben cried out.

"Yes,"

Sue spoke in a tiny, shaking voice, tears thick in her voice but not on the verge of falling onto her cheek. "What, exactly, is meant to make this job appealing?" she criticised.

"I believe that would be the 'saving the world' part," Tony pointed out to her.

"And to do that I have to leave my home and end my family?" She cried out in retaliation.

Tony nodded. "A sacrifice for the good of mankind and mutant kind alike."

"You can't make us do this!" Sue cried out to them. "Reed, tell them--"

However, her voice died in her throat as she turned to him. His head was down in his hands, hidden from all of them, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was hiding away his guilt. Everything slowly began to add up in her mind; his silence, his worry, the embrace he'd clung to…the shame.

"You knew," she realised.


	7. When I Needed Sunshine

**Chapter 7: When I Needed Sunshine**

_I thought love was more or less a given thing,_

_Seems the more I gave the less I got._

_What's the use in tryin'?_

_All you get is pain._

_When I needed sunshine I got rain._

_ The Monkees - I'm A Believer_

Silence would probably have been a derogatory term to describe the journey home. As it had chauffeured them there, the tinted-windowed car escorted them home, and this time, it wasn't just the driver that was silent. Reed said helplessly, knowing that it was only a matter of time before everything came into the open and his team, and his family, hated him. Sue sat at the opposite end of the car, staring out the window to avoid looking at her husband. Awkwardly, Ben and Johnny sat between them, unsure whether to make light conversation or join in with Sue and seep anger into the air without even looking or talking to Reed. In the end, they just sat silently between the parted couple, Ben staring down at his hands and Johnny trying to look out of a window without catching anyone's eye.

Sue couldn't believe how this had all happened. He _knew_. Reed had known the entire time. He knew that's why they were being asked there. He knew what their plan was. He knew, and he didn't tell her. Worse off, he knew and he didn't try and stop it. He was her husband, he was supposed to stop it; he was supposed to fight for her.

And he hadn't.

So, it was of no surprise that when they walked through the door, only Blaze was bouncing around with excitement. Johnny, of course, bent to give his dog the usual fuss, but his usual energy was gone, and having been satisfied by his master, Blaze then padded over to Sue, knowing that she'd give him a pat on the head, but there was nothing this time. There was no energy, no enthusiasm, because all their energies were directed at glaring at Reed. Blaze sat down at her feet, looking around at the four humans with a cocked head full of confusion that he could never understand.

"Sue," Reed began, looking at her turned back. "I--"

"Four years," she said simply.

"Sue-"

"_Four years_, and you didn't _once _consider telling us?" she asked him incredulously.

"Actually-"

She cut him off yet again, turning to face him fully. However, her face was not one of anger, which perhaps made him feel even more guilty. It was one of disappointment. "We put our trust in you every day, Reed. _Every single day_. Why can't you do the same for us?" This time, Reed made no move to start an explanation. "You're _supposed _to be our _leader_."

After a short silence, Reed looked to Johnny and Ben. "Could you give us a minute?" He asked them quietly.

"No, they can stay right there," Sue said harshly.

"Sue-"

"No, they have _every _right to stay," she said, anger welling within her again, "because _they've _been lied to as well!"

"Sue-"

"Why didn't you tell us?" She asked him sharply.

"It had nothing to do with trust," Reed told her.

"Then what was it?"

He sighed, knowing it was going to sound like a lame excuse, but it was the only one he had. "I was trying to protect you," he told her, before looking at the others as well. "All of you."

"We don't _need _protecting, Reed," Sue reminded him. "We're just as strong as you are."

"I didn't know it was going to come to this, I _swear_," he told them desperately.

"Really?" Sue asked him ironically. "Because when we were being briefed on the mission we hadn't even signed up for, you seemed to know _exactly _what was going on."

He looked at her in mild shock. "Do you think I set you up for this?" he asked her.

She shrugged dramatically. "I don't know what to think, Reed. I mean, you did keep a secret society from us."

"Sue-"

"And you know what's _really _funny?" She asked him, without waiting for an answer. "I'm _supposed _to be your wife."

"You are my wife,"

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't have lied to me," She seethed.

At this point, with their marital trust under the microscope, Reed's own anger boiled to the surface. "Don't you think for a single second that I had any input in coming up with that plan," he told her, his voice getting progressively louder.

"It doesn't matter who came up with it, because--"

"_I fought for you_!" he shouted, the tone of his protection heightened with the shouting causing Sue to stop in her tracks from where she had been pacing unnecessarily with the outbursts. She heard a million different emotions in his outcry, but the one that took hold of her the most was his determination; his strength and will to protect her. It almost made her drop the entire argument, knowing that he had fought for her when that was all she'd ever wanted him to do, but there was more to this now. This wasn't just about the two of them, it was so much more than that. "It was Tony Stark's idea. The Illuminati made the decision by calling a vote on Stark's proposal, _not _mine. It was voted by the majority," he explained in her silence, stepping closer to her and lowering his voice again when he was only two steps in front of her. "A majority that _I_ wasn't a part of. I fought for you, Sue. I did _everything _I could--"

"But you still didn't tell us about it," she pointed out.

Reed nodded. As much as he could tell her about how he declined the idea, how he begged for them not to do it, how he had tried to defend her, it wouldn't be enough.

"You might have fought for me, and I know I should be thankful for that, but you were still _involved_," Sue said, her own voice softer now, although in her case it was a sign of getting upset. Near silence was near tears for her. "You still had a casting vote, and that vote shouldn't have been cast without informing us. We're a _team_, Reed. We work together, we save lives together; we even do the weekly shopping list together. So when did that change for you?"

"It never changed, Sue, I just--"

"How much do you trust _me_, Reed?" she asked him, tears welling dangerously in her eyes.

"Sue, you know I--"

But she stepped away from him, not wanting to hear the answer in fear that it might make her tears known to everyone. "I should go," she said quietly, the tears thick in her voice. "I have a resume to write."

As she left, he called after her, but it was in vain. "Sue!" He was met only with the slamming of the door which she used for an office now that the building had been refurbished. Hearing the door slam firmly in place, Reed sighed, leaning on the back of the couch with his head hidden down. When he looked up a moment later, Johnny was glaring at him.

"Johnny-"

"Happy now?" he asked, every bit as angry as his sister.

"I fought for her," Reed repeated.

"You should have fought _harder_," Johnny said, leaving in the same direction as his sister had done, leaving Ben alone with his best friend.

"You should'a told us, Stretch," he said quietly, his voice void of the anger that the two siblings had.

"I know, I'm sorry," Reed said gently.

"I hope you find a way outta this one," Ben told him, "for yours _and _Susie's sake."

Reed sighed again. "I fought, Ben. I _really _did," he admitted, his voice pained. "I _can't _be separated from her, especially not if she has to go to Victor. I can't send her to him like that."

"Then do something about it," Ben said, shrugging his rocky shoulders as if the answer had been simple.

Then, he left as well, so that Reed was alone in the living room. Down at his feet, wagging his tail patiently for attention, Blaze pawed at Reed's shoe with a tiny pining sound, trying to attract Reed's attention. Reed looked down at the dog, and when Blaze saw, he jumped up on his hind legs, resting his front paws against Reed's stomach. He sighed, patting the dog's head for a moment, before heading off to his lab.

What could _possibly _make this worse?

----

It was gone eight o'clock when Reed finally found the courage to enter his bedroom. He knew that she was there, because he'd heard the door slam a few hours after she'd entered her office. Johnny had been with her for most of the afternoon, and he'd been hurt to know that she'd cried a lot that afternoon, as he had heard through the door when he'd been attempting to see to his wife. Now, however, dinner had come and gone, and Sue had remained in the bedroom. Johnny had told them that Sue didn't want to eat that night, and that had instantly given Reed the courage he needed to force himself through the door. He went to her, knowing that she was mad at him still, but no matter how mad she was he had to speak to her, otherwise things would never settle.

He found her sitting on the window seat in their bedroom looking up at the stars. He leant against the window frame, looking down at her so that they were opposite one another, but he didn't cast his eyes to her. Instead, they both faced out to the stars, almost determined not to be the first to turn away from the shining specks in the night sky that had given them so many memories and so much hope over the years.

Eventually, it was Reed that spoke, his voice quiet, still with his eyes turned away. "I know that you like to have a good breakfast, but are you sure you don't want any dinner? We saved some."

She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

He didn't argue with her. "Okay."

There was another silence, this time more comfortable. However, they knew that the issue was rising, and that it could be talked about now that they'd spoken at least three words to each other without one getting angry or upset again. The air needed clearing before they lay down to sleep. Sue would have liked to have said that Reed was sleeping on the couch that night, but Victor was back, and she was being sent right into his hands. She didn't know how long she'd have to sleep beside her husband, and no matter how angry she was at him it was only his arms that would make her sleep easily from now on.

She turned her head, looking up at him. "Did you really fight for me?" she asked in a tiny, timid voice.

He gazed down at her. "Yes. Yes, I did."

There was no hesitation in his voice, and the same went for his eyes. She only had to look at him for a second to know he had fought for her, and to see how devastated he was that he hadn't been able to fight hard enough. Knowing this, she drew her legs up to her chest, leaning her torso forwards for a moment. Reed recognised this gesture and moved from the window frame so that he was sitting behind her now. When he was in place she leaned back against his chest, and he instinctively curled his arms around her, holding her tightly against him.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized, yet again.

"Tell me," she said simply. He looked at her in confusion. "Tell me what really happened last night."

He nodded behind her, thought she couldn't see it, but she could feel the deep, preparing breath that he took. "I got to Charles's school just after midnight," he revealed to her.

"How did you get there?" Oh yes, she wanted to know everything.

"The car that came this morning always comes," he told her. "The driver never speaks, though. When I got there, everyone else was already waiting for me, and Stark made his usual snide comments about me tucking you into bed and lying about where I was going. Naturally, I talk back to him and things sometimes get out of hand, which is when Charles will step in."

"So, it's really like a boys gathering on the playground?"

He resisted to correct her on the grounds that it was more like teenage boys in a pissing contest, especially in his and Tony's case. "I'm not having him talk that way about you, Sue. I might be the only one in the group who has a wife and they can put me down for it all they want, but they're wrong when they call you a liability, even if they are right when they know you're my weakness."

"And it was Stark's idea?"

Again, Reed nodded. "When Charles told him to leave you out of the conversation, Stark suggested that you might serve some use…unfortunately, everyone agreed with the idea no matter what I said to convince them otherwise. I just…" he sighed, remembering what an angered Johnny had told him earlier after Sue had left the room. "I'm so sorry, Sue. I should have fought harder, I'm sorry."

Sue was silent for a moment, not moving in his arms until he felt her fingers gently brush the bare skin revealed at his wrist. "No, don't be sorry," she said quietly. "I don't want you to be sorry."

"I can't help it."

"You said it yourself, Reed," she reminded him. "There's nothing else that could have been done. You did all you could. I believe you on that."

"I know," he half-groaned, realising that they'd actually become helpless to the majority decision he'd not been a part of. "I just wish that it didn't have to be this way."

Sue turned into him a little, so that she was enclosed in his arms as if they were a blanket. "I don't think I can do this," she admitted, pressing her face into his chest as if it would take everything away.

"You can," he told her, a confidence rising from nowhere as he trailed his fingertips along her spine. "I don't want you to, but you can."

"I don't mean working for Victor again," she corrected. "I mean walking on on the team…my family…my home…faking a divorce…"

"Sue--"

"How are we supposed to do that?" Sue asked him. "Fake a divorce?"

He sighed, racking his brains. "We'll get our family lawyers involved, tell them that it's all a publicity cover and we won't actually sign anything."

She let out a breath that could be mistaken for a laugh, but none of this was amusing. "Seems kind of easy."

"Only for everyone else," he pointed out. "We're the ones it'll be hard for, not the legal system. I don't know how I'm going to sleep at night knowing that you're not there," he told her, breathing in the scent of her hair.

"How long until all this starts?" she asked him in a whisper.

"Too soon," he replied, still lost in her hair.

"At least we'll have a few more nights together," she murmured wearily.

"I guess so," he agreed, but a few more nights together was much too little for a married couple; a married couple who were very much in love and not really headed for a divorce. "Come on," he tempted. "We should get some sleep."

"It's still early," she pointed out.

"I don't care," he dismissed. "I want you in my arms."

----

Later on, as they lay together in bed, half-naked bodies curled against each other furiously as they tried to memorise what it felt like to hold the other beneath the blankets, thought started surfacing. They both realised it, but couldn't say it aloud because of the finality it would bring. All thoughts went back to that midday walk in the park, when they were playfully arguing over what their first child would be. Their child. The child they hadn't conceived yet. Not only were they faking a divorce, they were also giving up on their chance of having a child together.

For selfish reasons now, Sue hoped she was pregnant. That night, it wasn't about having a family together, feeling a child grow within her or giving Reed a son or daughter that they had created. Now, a baby was an escape clause, and she hated herself for thinking of it like that but it was true. If she was pregnant, there was no way they could send her in to do this project, because she'd start to show. If Victor found out that she was pregnant with Reed's child when she was really faking a divorce with him, she'd be killed without a second thought, and so would her child. There was a high chance that the rest of the team would be killed as well.

A baby would complicate things, but it could also save them.

"Reed?"

Her gentle voice broke the air, and he wound his arms a fraction further around her, ignoring that his muscles stretched beyond their usual testings. "Yes, honey?"

"Do you really think we can survive this?" she asked him, her voice wavering with uncertainly.

He nodded, as she buried her face in the grove between his neck and his shoulder, a place of safety that she had marked as her own. "We have to."


	8. I'll Try

**Chapter Eight: I'll Try**

_I said "I love you"  
She began to cry  
She said she needed a friend  
I said "I'll try"  
----John Popper - Alone_

Breakfast the next morning was quite possibly the most awkward they'd ever had, at least, all together. Usually, if Sue and Reed had been overheard arguing rather dramatically the day before then Ben and Johnny would try and make themselves scarce when the couple had breakfast the next morning to save the awkward silence that would drag them all in. However, there was no way they could make excuses and leave because both of them were worried about this plan laid down by the Illuminati and how much time it would leave them with the opportunity to have breakfast as a team, no, as a _family_, like this.

Blaze was the only one not to pick up on the different environment. To the puppy, nothing was wrong because Sue and Reed were making breakfast together, and as usual, Sue was slipping the puppy a few sneaky treats as she moved around the kitchen. After the first corner of toast that she'd torn off her own slice, he hadn't left Sue's side, and eventually she glanced down at the happy puppy expression that was directed at only her. Smiling, she slipped a spoonful of scrambled egg into his bowl. When she looked up, however, she found that she'd been caught and that Reed was rolling his eyes at her.

"And you say Johnny spoils him…" he said playfully.

"I do _not_," Johnny piped up from his seat at the kitchen table, where he was pouring over the sports section of the newspaper. "He spoils _himself_, he's a manipulative dog."

Sue laughed, and raised an eyebrow at her husband. "_You _can't talk, hon. I've seen you giving him biscuits when you think no one's watching."

He looked up in shock. "What-?"

She just laughed again, putting her hand on his upper arm. "There are some secrets you can't keep from your wife, Reed, and _one _of them is how much you feed the dog."

At this, everything fell silent. No one had mentioned the large argument the day before when they had arrived back from the Xavier school and now nobody wanted to be the first one to bring it up. Secrets, like the one Reed had kept from them, were, of course, unforgivable, but thanks to their shared helplessness and fear over the situation, Sue and Reed appeared to have found common ground on this aspect of their hectic lives.

Realising what she had said, she dropped her hand from his arm. "I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," he told her quickly. "I know."

There was a short silence again, and it was Johnny who broke it, folding up the sports section and tossing it into the spare place. "Speaking of secrets…"

"Johnny, please, not now," Sue half-pleaded with him. She'd had an awful sleepless night where she worried whether she'd ever get to hold her husband late at night without thinking about this time of their lives, and didn't want to talk about this yet.

"I was just thinking that…"

"Look," Sue cut in, turning away from the scrambled eggs and trying not to trip over Blaze in the process. "I just want to go through _at least _this morning without thinking about any of this."

However, her brother looked rather insulted at the idea. "Hey, this is _my _moment to shine, can I have it?"

Sighing, she picked up her plate, and sat down at the table where she'd put her coffee a few minutes ago. Sitting directly opposite her brother she gave him her undivided attention, even though she was fully aware of Reed's hand comfortingly on her knee beneath the table when he took the empty seat beside her. It was still a glass-topped table, so it wasn't really a secret gesture, but Johnny and Ben had learned long ago to stop with the wisecracks about public displays of affection, especially when Reed pointed out that it was, technically, his kitchen first. "Okay, what is it?"

"You remember what they said about moving out of the Baxter and stuff?" Johnny reminded her.

She nodded with a grimace after a strong intake of coffee. "Vividly."

"Well, _I'm_ going with you," he announced proudly.

She was silent for a moment. They all were, unsure of how to react to Johnny's decision. "Johnny, what?" she asked, wondering why he was willingly putting himself into the same line of danger that she was heading into when he was probably the most likely of the four of them to compromise the mission.

"Listen," he said, preparing himself for the big explanation he'd come up with during his own sleepless night last night. "If you've got to fake a divorce with Reed," his simple phrasing made the couple both wince, and Reed's hand on her knee moved for a fraction of a second, "leave the Fantastic Four, _AND _move out of the Baxter Building, pretty much the _entire _city is going to know that it's a pile of _bullshit _unless _I _go with you. I'm your _brother_. We'll do this together, and if I'm there, you're not _completely _on your own and I can be there in case something happens."

With a sheen of tears over her eyes that she refused to let spill over, Sue smiled. "Do you mean that?" she asked quietly.

"Absolutely," he nodded without hesitation. "Let's face it, Victor's not _exactly _stupid."

Ben looked at him strangely. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were defending him, matchstick."

"I'm not," he jumped in quickly. "I just think that he's not going to take any of this, or any of _us_, on faith. Sue's going to have everything to prove in his eyes, and he's exactly the sort of guy who's gonna be demanding proof twenty-four-seven."

Realising just how on-guard she was going to have to be, Sue reached below the table and took the hand that Reed had placed on her knee. He realised her need for reassurance and grasped her hand tightly, drawing circles on the inside of her palm with his thumb. "Meaning?" Sue asked, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.

"_Meaning _we have to be prepared," Johnny shrugged simply. "Cover all our bases, like. _Hence_, me coming with you."

"Would this have anything to do with the fact that you'd have to learn to use the dryer properly if I wasn't here?" she asked him.

"Perhaps," he nodded, "but mainly the good brother part."

She smiled gently at him. "Thank you, Johnny."

"No problem, but there is one condition, though."

"What's that?" Reed asked over his coffee, not releasing Sue's hand under the table.

"I'm _not _working for Victor," he said straight out.

Sue smiled over her coffee mug. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Johnny."

Johnny laughed to himself. "I guess not…oh, _good _times," he mused, leaning back in his chair and daydreaming.

Reed, however, looked rather alarmed. "Do we want to know the story behind this?"

She shook her head. "Probably not."

"Long story short," Johnny told him, "it appears that the same qualities which make me charming have _also _made me unemployable."

"I'm not surprised," Ben said in his gruff voice. "Look at you, kid, you're the Human Torch. You're a walking health and safety violation."

He just shrugged, taking it as a compliment. "What can I say? Chicks dig the danger."

"Whatever happened to '_chicks dig the puppy'_?" Ben challenged him.

Offended, Johnny gaped at his team mate. "Please don't talk about my Blaze like he's an _object_."

Sue looked at Reed, her eyes smiling. "I _told _you that puppy would be good for him."

He sighed, smiling nonetheless now that the conversation had taken lighter tones again. "Point proven, but we're not getting another one."

Hearing this, Johnny snapped out of his bickering with Ben. "You know, when we were at the park the other day one of those blonde girls offered to breed Blaze with one of her bitches. Maybe I should call her and take her up on the offer--"

"_NO_!" came the replying protest from the other three.

A little knocked back, Johnny sank back into his chair. "Just a suggestion…"

Finishing her breakfast, Sue pushed back her chair and stood up, her hand feeling cold once she had released Reed's. "I'm going to head out in a whole, I've got some errands to run. Does anyone need anything?"

"Some alcohol would be nice," Johnny said.

"Anyone?" she asked, as if she hadn't heard him.

"Just the newspaper, honey," Reed said, joining her at the kitchen worktop so that he could kiss her briefly. "I've got some work to do in the lab, but let me know when you get back, though."

"I will," she smiled. "Ben?"

"Naw thanks, Susie, you want some company though?" he offered.

She smiled at him. "Yeah, that's be nice."

----

As they walked down the high street together, Sue pulled her light jacket closer around her, even though the late summer air was still warm. It was just the chill of knowing what she needed to do that was creeping up her spine. She hadn't done it yet, though. Ben knew, to top things off. He noticed her shifty behaviour. It was a good thing that they didn't actually go into any shops otherwise they might think she was shoplifting.

"So…" Ben spoke into the silence when they reached a less crowded street. "'_Errands to run'_? Nice getaway."

She looked at him briefly before turning back to the street, shoving her hands into her pockets. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"We've been out for almost two hours and you've not done any errands…_plenty _of window shopping, but no errands."

"_Ben_…"

"You don't have to wait until my back is turned, you know. You can just mail it already." Sue fell silent at his side. They stopped walking, just face each other in the almost empty street. "You okay?" he asked her, noticing how intently she was looking down at the sidewalk.

She half-laughed, but there was no amusement in her tone. "You know, it's funny," she mused. "I was writing my resume yesterday, and I got down to 'employment history' and realised that I'd written the _exact _job I was applying for again, right down to the same company employer."

"Susie…"

"I _can't _mail it, Ben," she said, her hands appearing from her pockets and flailing for a moment before collapsing helplessly at her sides. The pain in her voice showed every bit of hope that had failed her now that she had to leave behind her family and her love. "As soon as I mail that resume everything begins."

"You can't put this off, Susie," he pointed out to her, carefully laying his hand on her shoulder with some difficulty. "The sooner it starts, the sooner it's _over_, and by Christmas we'll be looking back and laughing on this."

She smiled sadly. "Ben, I'm not stupid. The Illuminati might have made it seem like a three-week job, but this isn't going to be over before Christmas. I need to win back Victor's _trust_. That's not going to happen anytime soon, not after what we did to him. It took six months for him to fully trust me the first time I worked for him, and that was before Reed and I were married and had tried to kill him."

They started walking slowly again. "Look on the bright side," Ben suggested after a moment.

"_What _bright side?"

"He might not even hire you."

Sue smiled properly this time. "I hadn't even thought of that."

"_See_," he prompted. "This might not be as bad as you think it's going to be."

She groaned dramatically. "I'm sure this is some sort of punishment."

"Now who would want to punish you?"

"I have no idea," she shrugged. "All I know is that saving the world is one thing, but _working for Victor_?!"

"Point taken."

"I just…" she trailed off into hopelessness again. "I honestly don't know how I'm going to do this, Ben."

"Hey, we're gonna do it _together_," he told her. "Just because me an' Reed won't be right beside you, that doesn't mean we haven't got your back."

She turned to him as they walked, nudging her shoulder against his rocky bicep for moment. "How come you always know what to say to make me feel better?"

"I've spent a lot of time watching Reed say the wrong things," he said, rather proudly. "Kinda makes me a female expert."

"Oh, really?" she challenged.

"Yeah. This _Thing _look is a babe magnet really."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," he scoffed, but then hastily added. " But don't say that to Alicia."

She laughed, and then half-gasped. "Speaking of Alicia, when are you going to make an honest woman out of her?" she teased him.

"Susie…"

"Because I don't care _who _I'm working for or _where _I'm living," she continued, "there's _no _chance I'm not being at your wedding."

"Don't worry, Susie, I'll make sure you're there," he assured her.

"Oh, so does that mean there's going to be one?" she tested him.

He raised his rocky eyebrow at her. "You wanna do these errands on your own, or what?" he teased her back.

She just smiled, dragging him towards an empty-looking café. "Come on, lunch is on me."


	9. Calm My Restlessness

**Chapter Nine: Calm My Restlessness**

_So raise your hands to heaven and pray,  
That we'll be back together someday.  
Tonight, I need your sweet caress,  
Hold me in the darkness.  
Tonight, you calm my restlessness,  
You relieve my sadness.  
Breathe - Hands To Heaven_

It had been a while...too long a while...since they'd done this, and their muscles instantly reacted to the familiar aches. Sue, particularly, was starting to feel the strain of reminder in her arms and legs as she stretched them out before her, beside her and behind her. Reed, of course, had the added elasticity in his limbs and never felt the aches until afterwards, but Sue didn't mind that she felt the strain more that her husband did. She sometimes amused herself with the fact that her body knew what was coming. Of course, it wasn't that she was in bad shape - she was certainly in excellent shape, as her husband was all too eager to remind her - but being a full time superhero was sometimes exhausting, and it required you to be on your toes and agile...something that took more effort than they'd all first thought it would be.

Catching her husband watching her out of the corner of her eye, Sue grinned to herself, bending down to touch her toes. Reed focused hard on not starting as he did a similar stretch to her, their eyes meeting mid-stretch as he lowered down and she regained her upright position. "Ready?" she asked him, after a few stolen glances.

He returned to his standing position, nodding as he took a deep, even breath. "Ready," he confirmed.

They stepped closer to each other, squaring one another up as they fell into their well-practiced fighting stances. Immediately, their eyes felw back to meet each other's. Rule one: never take your eye off your opponent, they remembered.

"Don't hold back, okay?" she told him, her voice softening for a moment. "We've both got a lot of frustration to take out."

He nodded slightly. Their sparring together had been a regular activity since they'd gained their powers. The four of them wanted to keep on their toes in regards to combat skills, and in the case of Reed and Sue, actually learn some. Johnny had been doing various forms of martial arts since he was seven years old, and Ben had had self defence training as well. Sue and Reed, on the other hand, had never even considered it. Sue knew that she could defend herself, given the fact that Johnny had, several times in their youth, taught her some basic defence skills when she started doing bar work to put her through college and was walking home alone. Reed, on the other hand, was terrible, and knew that he couldn't defend himself simply by stretching out of the way. So, the four of them were trained in advanced combat skills by an old trainer of Johnny's.

Of course, when it came to practicing together, it was clear that Sue and Reed would be fighting each other. Not only were they the same trained level, but it was also to do with the more obvious points. None of them could physically fight Ben, as one simple hit would break their bones and severely damage their internal organs. Sue and Johnny's sparring always turned into sibling rivalry and their powers came into use, which was something they were trying not to incorporate, and likewise, Johnny had an 'accidental' habit of melting various parts of Reed's torso whenever they sparred together. He insisted that none of it was intentional and it was just the texture of Reed's skin reacting to his abnormally high body temperature, but Sue was still sure it had something to do with the brother-in-law bickering they had sometimes.

That, of course, left just the married couple as sparring partners; something that usually turned into something more intimate than fighting. "You're going down this time," Reed told her confidently.

She grinned at him, determined to get the last word in as if they were arguing over what milk to buy or whether or not they should buy a new dishwasher. "You wish, Richards."

Simultaeneously, they both dove into the fight; and as usual it was Sue that moved in for the first hit; a low sweeping kick that, had Reed had been prepared for what had become her trademark starting move, would have knocked him off his feet. He jumped, avoiding her foot and as he landed again he went in for a stomach hit, finding that his fist was blocked straight away. Pucnhes flew through the air, both open and closed hand, with both of them trying, and at the same time not trying to hit each other.

"Your dodging is getting faster," Sue complimented breathlessly at one point.

"I'm flexible," he reminded her, bending out of the way of another hit as if to prove his point.

"Still, it's gotten better," she mused, remembering how she used to be able to land hits whether he was stretching away or not.

"Thanks, the strength of your hit is a good motivation to move out of the way," he told her.

She smirked. "Yeah, well, you obviously haven't taken one of your fists to the lower back," she teased him.

"I said I was sorry about that, honey, you turned around--whoa!" he exhaled when one of his blocks failed and he took a side kick to the get. It didn't hurt him because of his ability but it still threw him off balance for a second as his skin rippled around her foot.

"Your accuracy is terrible today, Reed," she observed.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you giving me tips?" he asked her.

She smirked at him. "We both know I'm better."

"Oh, really?" he challenged. Of course, he begged to differ and was determined not to be beaten by a woman - even if that woman was his wife.

"Absolutely." Now she was just bruising his pride.

"Perhaps we should stop holding back then," he suggested, throwing himself into a kick as he spun around, however she managed to block it easily, jumping back to avoid his foot.

"I'll stop when you stop," she agreed.

"I just don't want to hurt you," he told her, knowing that he was always hesitant to stop holding back even though she'd told him not to in every single sparring match they had together. Of course, in any other match one of them would be on the floor by now.

"I've got a high pain threshold," she assured him. "And we both need this, Reed. Don't hold back, okay?"

She was right; they did need this. The stress levels brought on from the past few days had sent his tolerance flying through the roof. That morning he'd almost snapped at the dog just for wagging his tail when he was stressed, and thats when Sue realised that something needed to be done for all of them. Because of that, Ben was taking Alicia to lunch and Johnny was at a motocross tornament while the two of them could work out their frustration in their regular way. They needed this. Both of them. Their increasingly close involvement with Victor was creeping up on them. Sue had mailed her resume to Victor, and was waiting to hear back for an interview if he even considered her application. All of them had their fingers crossed for a rejection, even if they didn't say it.

"Okay," he finally agreed. "After three?"

"One,"

"Two,"

"Three," they said together, before throwing themselves fully into the match. They both had their share of hits and blocking, and after a few minutes of straight fighting, Sue somehow managed to bring Reed down to the ground.

He cried out as he hit the floor, and Sue panicked for a moment, thinking that she had really hurt him. She rushed to his side, not pinning him down as she usually did but rather crouching at his side, placing her hand on his chest. "Oh my God, sweetie, are you okay? I'm so sorry," she rushed out.

She couldn't remember how, exactly, it had happened, but a few seconds later she found herself pinned beneath Reed on the mat beneath them.

"Talk about fighting dirty," she pointed out, but still smiling with the adrenaline from the match.

Reed smiled at her, proud with winning, and even more proud at the fact he now had Sue at his mercy beneath him. "Accuracy, Sue," he told her playfully.

He leaned down and kissed her, however, just when the kiss started getting passionate, he pulled back from the kiss, almost sharply. Sue kept hold of him where her arms were round around his neck so that he couldn't move off her, but her eyes flooded with concern. "What's the matter?" she asked him.

"I...Sue, I'm just so sorry..."

And there it was. The same guilt that had been overtaking him for the past few days now. She ran her hands through his hair. "You'll come up with something," she said quietly.

"How do you know that?" he asked doubtfully.

"I have a feeling," she explained simply.

He sighed. "Well, that isn't exactly tangible evidence--"

"Close your eyes for a moment," she interrupted him, putting her hands on his cheeks gently and tracing comforting circles with her thumbs once his lids had closed. "What am I doing?" she asked him.

"You're touching me," he acknowledged.

"How do you know that?" she tested him.

"Because I..." he realised what she was doing. "Because I feel it."

"You should trust that," she told him. "You don't trust that enough." He kept his eyes closed, and before he could open them she leaned up to kiss him again. "Feelings that you trust in are more reliable than any statistical fact."

Reed sighed. "I hope you're right," he whispered as he opened his eyes.

She nodded. After all, what little arguments they did have were ended because she was always right. "You know, I wouldn't do this for anyone but you," she told him. "If any of the others were involved in a secret society, I would never have agreed to this."

"Then why me?" he asked her.

"Because it's you," she explained simply. "You're my husband, and I know that no matter how things turn out we can be together again when it's all over."

He placed his hand on the back of her neck to bring her in for a kiss. "That's forever," he assured her, whispering his words against her lips.

----

Johnny's distraction for the day had begun with his sister forcing him out of the apartment and him wandering off to a motocross tornament that he'd been told three days before was too dangerous to compete in. He wasn't sure what had made Sue change her mind about it, but he was thankful for it, and was pretty sure it had something to do with her and Reed alone in the apartment together. His mind stayed away from those sorts of thoughts on principle - after all, it was his sister - but every time he realised that Sue had been very insistant that he and Ben were out of the building for the afternoon he started to regret leaving poor, innocent, impressionable puppy Blaze behind in the apartment.

His distraction had turned into clubbing, and it was nearing midnight when he found himself sitting at the bar. Most people were up dancing, but his glass was empty and he had priorities - getting completely smashed (he might as well, while his sister had given him 'permission'. It would be like blaming her for a hangover). But whilst the dancefloor was much more crowded than any other area of the club, there was one solitary person sitting at the bar.

He was instantly struck by her beauty - after all, it was what he noticed first in every girl that passed him in the street - but this was a sad beauty that caught his eye. Her auburn hair was hanging loosely over her shoulders, barely brushed and he knew that it wasn't because she'd been shaking her head around on the dancefloor - he'd have grabbed her for a dance had she been on the dancefloor near him. Her fingers traced the empty glass before her, which she stared into with her green eyes. Simply beautiful.

And drunk.

Grinning as if he'd hit a jackpot, he approached the other end of the bar and crawled into the seat beside her. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked her over the blaring music.

She looked up sharply from her glass, completely unaware that she'd been joined. "Excuse me?"

"I asked if I could get you a drink..." he repeated, noticing that the mascara she was wearing had run quite a bit and was pooling on the skin beneath her eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly - he was never one to play the crying shoulder but he figured it couldn't hurt to try.

The girl sighed. "You don't even want to hear about the day I've had," she told him, throwing a cocktail stick into her glass with a supressed rage that attracted him even more.

"Ouch," he sympathised. "That bad?"

"My boyfriend and I broke up today."

Victory bells started ringing in Johnny's head, but he put his arm around her shoulder instead. "Well, he's a fool for letting a beautiful girl like you get away from him."

She half-smiled. "I broke up with him," she corrected.

Those victory bells rang louder. "Even better," Johnny announced. "No reason for you to be sad."

She looked at him strangely, which with her drunkenness was a strange sight. "I'd been with him for a long time," she revealed. "It's hard to let something like that go so easily."

"I suppose so," he nodded, remembering how much, and how long, his sister had moped around his apartment when she'd first broken up with Reed. "Hey, I've got something to cheer you up," he told her brightly.

"Really?" she asked, clearly doubting him.

"Yeah," he grinned. "I bet I can guess your phone number!"

She frowned at him, shaking her head. "No, you couldn't."

He snapped his fingers dramatically. "Okay, you got me!" he sighed. "You'd better write it down."

She regained her strange look. "Are you hitting on me?" she asked him.

His eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of that, but it's a great idea," he lied. "Do you want me to hit on you?"

She shrugged lazily. "I don't know. I'm drunk."

"I like that in a girl," he smirked."

"Ha. Very funny."

"We could have sex," Johnny suggested.

"We could?" the girl asked.

He nodded. "I know that you've just broken up with your boyfriend and I'm sure that you're feeling lonely, so I'd like to help you feel not so lonely."

She took this in for a moment, screwing up her face in drunken concentration. "That would be strangely kind of you."

"It would be, yes," he smiled.

She cocked her head to one side. "I don't even know your name," she realised.

"Johnny," he offered.

"Cute," she smiled.

"Thank you," he said smugly.

"I meant your name." Ouch. Hit one.

"Thank you twice," he said, recovering from his hit before she realised she'd struck his ego.

"I'm Crystal," she told him.

"Crystal," he nodded, testing the name out on his tongue. "You wanna get out of here, Crystal?"

She nodded. "Sure, why not."


	10. Illusion Never Changed

**Chapter Ten: Illusion Never Changed**

_I'm all out of faith, this is how I feel  
I'm cold and I am shamed, lying naked on the floor.  
Illusion never changed into something real  
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn.  
You're a little late, I'm already torn.  
__Natalie Imbruglia - Torn_

Panic coursed through her veins faster than the nausea did. As tears pricked the corners of her eyes, she drew in a shaky breath, biting her lip to stop herself from crying and waking her husband where he slept unaware in the next room. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and leaned forward, placing her head in her hands. An overwhelming grief knotted in her stomach, pulling at the heart which was already confused and aching. More than anything she wanted to crawl into bed and fall back asleep, forgetting everything that had happened that morning, but she couldn't. She felt a longing, a painful urge, to return to bed, knowing that with her husband there he could give her the comfort she knew he would provide lovingly, but she couldn't. She couldn't have that conversation with him until she'd sorted her own head out.

By not, she was biting her lip the the point where it was painful, and she was sure that the tangy sensation of blood was present on her tongue. She bowed her head further, screwing up her eyes as she tried to bring herself back into control. The sickness had come on quickly, in fact, the burning sensation in her stomach had been what had woken her at sunrise. After throwing up the entire contents of her stomach without waking her husband and arousing his concern, she'd sat back in the bathroom floor, realising that this could mean. A glass of water she'd poured from the bathroom sink lay barely touched at her side. It couldn't be food poisoning, or the others would be sick too...she hadn't been drinking so it wasn't a hangover. There was no other reason for it, her mind realised. Logic was pointing to the obvious. It was either stress...or...

"Oh..._no_..."

----

"Morning, honey."

Sue looked up as, hours later, Reed shuffled into the kitchen with Ben. She smiled at him, covering up the worry that had been clouding her for hours as she sat at the kitchen table. Now, however, the apartment was filled with the smell of bacon as she stood at the stove. When she was upset or worried, things were cooked or cleaned. This was not an exception. Once, Reed had come home to find that his stock room had been dusted, along with every piece of equipment, some over a decade old, inside it. It was how he knew that their first attempt at trying for a baby had been unsuccessful.

She turned to him as he came up beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Hey, sweetie," she said, as he kissed her on the cheek.

"You're up early," he observed.

"Couldn't sleep," she explained. "I thought I'd do something useful like make breakfast."

Ben sat down at the kitchen table with a happy sigh. "My stomach _loves _it when you can't sleep, Susie," he grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Good morning to you as well," she said sarcastically. "It'll be ready soon, can one of you go and wake Johnny and tell him?"

"There's no need, he didn't come home last night," Reed told her.

Sue abanoned all thoughts of cooking and turned around. "What?"

"His door is open and his room's empty," Reed shrugged. "He's not home yet."

She frowned. "He hasn't stayed out all night for months now," she realised.

"All the more reason for him to want to do it," Ben pointed out.

Sue ignored his input, and looked at where Blaze was sitting, paws outstreched before his breakfast bowl. He was waiting for his worshipped owner to feed him even though Sue had been feeding him scraps while she'd been cooking breakfast. "Oh, Johnny, what have you gotten yourself into _now_?" she asked the silence around her.

----

When Johnny eventually awoke, he felt the pleasant remind her of a hangover combined with last night's sex overcoming him. He grinned to himself as he rose from the pillow and found the girl...the girl who's name he couldn't quite remember right now...sitting on the bed beside him. She was wrapped up in the sheet which left him with nothing but his underwear to cover his family jewels, and the auburn hair looked just as tousled now as it had done at the bar last night.

"Good morning," he grinned, pride overwhelming him as he looked at the beautiful girl wrapped in a bedsheet beside him.

"Morning," she said, with some distraction and a mild hint of panic. "Oh _god_."

"Yeah, last night was great," he agreed.

"This is embarrasing on _so _many levels."

Now that he hadn't been expecting.

"What?" he asked her, frowning in confusion.

"You have to go," she told him, crawling off the bed and taking the sheet with her.

He patted the mattress beside him. "Why don't you just come back to bed and we'll pick up where we left off instead?" he suggested.

"No, seriously, you _have _to go," she told him. "I'm going to be late."

She started gathering up her clothes from last night, which she threw onto a pile in the corner before grabbing new underwear and an outfit from her closet and holding them in her arms over thesheet. "Late for what?" he asked her.

"Work," she said simply. "I have to go down to the office and finalise my contract, so you have to go."

"Right," he nodded, yawning as he realised how early it actually was. "That sounds..._boring_."

"It is," she agreed, "but I'm going to take a shower now...and when I get out, you won't be here."

"Won't I?" he grinned, propping himself up on one arm.

"No, because you're leaving," she told him. "Goodbye...umm..."

A glaze overcame her, and his eyes widened. "_Johnny_," he told her, a hint of annoyance in the air considering she had forgotten his name.

"Johnny, right," she said quickly, trying to cover up the fact that she hadn't had a clue who he was. "Crystal," she said, gesturing to herself.

"Crystal?" he tested, knowing that the name sounded vaugely familiar. "Nice meeting you," he said politely. "Nice _sleeping _with you as well, if you don't mind me saying that you were awesome!"

She blushed, and rushed towards where he guessed the bathroom was. "Bye, Johnny."

----

Sue was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast when Johnny finally stalked into the kitchen, Blaze following him faithfully as always. "_There _you are!" she sighed, turning to him with the plate she was drying still in her hands. "Where were you this morning?"

"I didn't come home last night," he said simply, sitting down at the table.

She dropped her shoulders. "Does this involve a girl?"

"You mean the one that kicked me _out _this morning?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Oh, here we go again---"

"Hey, this is a new experience for me!" he defended. "She said it was _'embarassing'_."

"It was only a matter of time, Johnny," Sue told him. "Eventually, you're going to be too old for this life and one nights stands will stop being a way of life and start being a horrible feeling in your stomach when you wake up."

"Okay, three things," he said, leaning forwards and counting on his fingers. "One: I don't even want to _know _how you know that...two: I'm not too old for _anything_, and three...she was a great girl, and I'd like to see her again."

She looked at him in disbelief. "That's what you say after a _first date_, Johnny, not after you screw someone who's name you didn't know!"

"I knew her name, actually," he said proudly.

"That doesn't deserve a medal."

He looked at her strangely. "You okay?" he asked her. "You're a bit...snappy this morning."

"I'm fine," she told him rather bitterly with a sigh. "I just don't feel great." Awful. She felt awful.

"Oh, before I forget," he said, changing the subject swiftly as he reached into his pocket and produced an envelope.

"What's that?" she asked as he put it down on the table, and she was horrified to see that it was adressed to her. _Susan Storm_. She never got mail under her maiden name anymore.

"Jimmy sent it up," Johnny told her. "Apparently it was delivered by hand rather than with the rest of the mail, so he couldn't send it up at the same time. It's for you."

"I can see that," she said simply, not taking her eyes off of it.

"Aren't you going to open it?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Later. I have to do something first," she told him.

"What?"

"Does it matter?" she asked.

"It does when you look all twitchy and nervous like that," he nodded.

"I'm _not _twitchy and nervous," she said defensively.

"You've been drying that same plate since I walked in," he pointed out to her.

She realised that the plate was, in fact, dry, and placed it on the worktop. "Johnny-"

"Come on," he said, leaning forwards in the chair again. "Tell your caring baby brother, maybe I can help."

She looked at him suspiciously. "You want to help?"

He nodded. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do."

Sue rolled her eyes. "How inspiring..."

"Well, what is it?" he asked impatiently.

"We need to go shopping," she told him vaugely.

"I thought you went shopping the other day with Reed?" he asked her, not wanting to stand outside a dressing room holding her purse...it had damaged his reputation once before and never again.

"No, I need something else," she said, throwing the dishcloth beside the drying up.

"Something such _as_..." he prompted.

She sighed. "Is there _any _chance we can do this _without _talking about it?" she asked him desperately.

He shook his head. "Not a chance in Hell."

"Fine," she said, "come on then."

She went to walk out of the room and he stopped, holding out an arm. "Wait, where are we going?"

"The drug store," she said, averting her eyes from his and making sure that no one was around to hear her. "I need a pregnancy test."

She left before he could question her again, and Johnny froze for a moment. "A preg---Are you _serious_?"


	11. These Walls Are Closing In

**Chapter Eleven: These Walls Are Closing In**

_I take the pieces of my broken heart,  
I place them in my hands  
'Cause I feel like I need answers, and I need reasons  
But only you can understand  
Right now I feel like these walls are closing in  
And I'd give anything to feel your peace within_

_Matthew West - Forever and Beyond_

The questioning hadn't stopped the whole way to the store, or while they selected a pregnancy test, or while they stood in the queue to pay for it, or while they went home again afterwards. At first, she had brushed it off with a 'not now, Johnny' or a 'not here, Johnny', but once they were back in the Baxter she couldn't avoid the issue and blame it on the presence of the general public anymore. Several people had seen her buying a pregnancy test at the nearest drug store, with her brother asking questions, and it wouldn't be long before it was broadcast all over the city and internet.

"Have you seriously not told him?" Johnny asked incredulously, as they took off their jackets and hung them by the door.

"There might not be anything to tell," she argued half-heartedly.

"But you've not told him there might be a chance-?"

"No, okay?" she cut him off quickly. "No, I haven't."

"So, I know that I might be an uncle, but Reed doesn't know that he's-"

"Doesn't know what?" Reed asked, walking obliviously into the hall.

"Reed," Sue gasped, caught like a deer in the headlights, and fumbling to conceal the paper bag she was hiding before remembering that she could simply turn it invisible.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, realising that whatever she was holding was now completey hidden from his sight. "You look all...nervous and twitchy."

"Told you," Johnny gloated.

Sue glared at him, and then turned to her husband. "Are you busy?" she asked him airily.

"No, but I-"

"Good," she smiled, no matter how fake her grin was. She grapped his arm and all but dragged him down the hall. "Come with me, dear. We need to talk."

He allowed himself to be pulled into the bedroom, knowing that if he put up a fight it would only end with his arm being completely stretched to wherever she was leading him. "Am I in trouble?" he asked her hesitantly.

"No, but I might be," she said, as she clsoed the door.

When she gestured to the bed, he sat down, watching as she started pacing before him rather than joining him. Her hands were wringing, one of them still clearly holding onto the invisible object in her grasp, and he waited for her to talk. After a few minutes, however, the waiting and confusion was too much. "Sue, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"What's wrong?" she repeated. "Um...something unexpected might be happening," she told him. "Something that is going to change everything if it is happening, and even if it's not I get the feeling that things are still going to change."

His brow furrowed, looking up at her. "Honey, you're not making any sense," he told her.

"Okay, talking isn't working," she realised with a huff. Instead, she removed the invisibility from the paper bag, and haded it to him. "Look inside."

Reed looked at her with deeper confusion before taking the bag, then he glanced into the paper confinements, looked back at her, and did a double take. He stared long and hard at the contents of the bag, before taking them out for a closer inspection. "Sue," he said after a moment, "this is a pregnancy test."

"Yes," she said simply.

"You think you could be pregnant?"

"Yes," she repeated.

He let out a breathy laugh, and a smile. "Wow."

"No, not 'wow', Reed," she complained, gesturing her hands wildly as his expression returned to confusion. "Any other month this would have been amazing, and don't get me wrong it still is, but when I'm about to leave and---"

Realising the source of her frustration, he stook up, placing his hands on her arms so that it stopped her obscenely large hand gestures. "Sue, if you are pregnant, there's no way I'm letting them force you into doing this," he explained clearly.

She stopped, looking up at him. "Do you really mean that?" she asked him.

"Of course, I do," he smiled. "But first, we'd better do the test."

She nodded numbly. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Do you want me to wait here?" he offered.

She nodded again, taking the test from him. "Yeah, I'll be out in a second," she said.

She went into their private bathroom, and came back a moment later with the test in her hand. Reed was still holding the box. "How long do we have to wait?" she asked, sitting down beside him.

He read the instructions. He knew how they worked, having sat through so many, but each brand had their own timer. "The box says three minutes," he read.

She groaned, wishing that she'd chosen a quicker result test. "Feels like a lifetime," she sighed.

They sat, for once, in silence through the three minutes. And it was a long three minutes, filled with nothing but the sound of the ticking clock at Reed's bedside. Finally, after what felt like a year, the three minutes were up. "Do you want to look first?" Reed offered.

She shook her head. "No, I can't do it," she said. "You do it."

He took the test from her, turning it over to see the result. Then, he picked up the box again, looking back and forth between the two for a moment before letting out a long breath.

"Well?" she asked.

He shook his head slowly, setting the test down on the bedside table. "It's negative."

"Oh," she said simply.

"Sue," he whispered, putting his arms around her.

"I guess I should be happy," she mused, resting her head on his chest. "It would have been dangerous for a baby to be involved in this."

"Sue-"

"I just got sick this morning and I panicked."

"Sue-"

"We'll just have to start trying again when all this is over," she finished.

He kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry, Sue," he mumbled into her hair.

"Don't be," she sighed reluctantly. "This is out of our control now."

"That doesn't make us want it any less," he pointed out.

"I guess not," she agreed, her eyes falling on the failed test. "How many negatives does this make now?" she asked.

He sighed. "I try not to think about it," he told her.

"Reed..." she said, her eyes never leaving the test. "This was close."

"I know. So close."

"I don't mean that," she said, raising her head to look him in the eye. "I can't be pregnant when I go into this...and to go so long without you..."

"I see what you mean," he agreed sadly.

"We can't be this close again," she decided. "Not until all of this is over."

"We need to start being careful again."

"Yeah, we do," she nodded.

There was a silence, which was broken by both of them sighing heavily and returning to each other's embrace. "Don't worry," he assured her. "Everything's going to be fine."

-----

A few hours after hearing the bedroom door open again, Johnny was seeking his sister. Reed had gone to his lab, coping with whatever the result had been in his own way, and Sue, unforunately, had turned invisible, because she knew that her brother would be wanting to know the result of the test. She also would have known that he had more chance getting blood out of a stone than getting Reed's attention once he had started working on something with a microscope.

"Sue, are you here?" he asked, going into the den with a coffee in his hands. There was silence, and there was nothing to be seen. "Come on, I know you're here," he said again, stepping closer to the couch. He waited, and there was still nothing. He looked for the tell-tale signs of someone sitting on the couch cushions, but there were none. "Susie, we've been through this before. If you're going to wear that perfume that Reed got you then there's no chance of hiding," he explained to thin air. He sighed when that didn't work, "Okay," he reasoned. "I've got a hot, moist cup of coffee in my hands...there is no coaster on this table...I'm going to set it down on this lovely, pine..."

"Don't you dare!" Sue cried out, materialising behind him.

"Aha!" he said, spinning around to face her. "There you are! We need to talk!"

She sighed, her shoulders collapsing. "Johnny, please, I can't talk about it right now."

"You can to me," he said simply. He sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to him. "Come on," he said, when she did nothing but stare at it for a moment.

She sighed again, sitting down beside him. "So, what, exactly, are we talking about?"

"You know what."

"Johnny-"

"You drag me to the drug store with you to buy a pregnancy test. The second we get home you drag Reed into the bedroom and don't reappear for an hour. Then, when you do, you turn invisible the second you see me," he reminded her. "Now, normally when the two of you lock the door for an hour I'm not going to ask questions because you're my sister and it grosses me out, but this time you came out with tears on your cheeks and I know better than to ask questions."

"Johnny, look-"

"Only this time, I don't know whether the test was negative or not," he continued. "I guess either one could bring tears this time."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, avoiding his eyes. "I just...couldn't talk about it."

"Well, you're my sister, and we're going to talk about it," he said.

"What if I don't want to?" she argued.

"That doesn't matter."

"It should."

"It doesn't, and it never will," he told her. "Because I know you, and I know that unless we talk about this now you're never going to talk about it again and months down the line when you're feeling stressed you're going to break down and it'll all lead back to this moment when I accepted that you didn't want to talk and left it at that," he rambled. Sue looked away, processing his words and knowing that he was right. "So, let's talk."

She ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't even know where to start."

Johnny got more comfortable on the couch, preparing himself for the long haul. "Well, the pregnancy test would be a good place to start, so let's start there," he told her. "Was it positive?"

"No," she whispered.

"Right. Next thing. Are you okay?"

She sighed again. "I don't know whether or not I should be upset about it. I mean, I know that it would completely destroy the only plan we have to bring Victor own, but...but it doesn't change the fact that all I want to do is have a child with my husband," she explained, unable to hide the trembling in her voice.

"Talk about bad timing," he agreed.

She merely nodded, and it fell silent in the room again.

"Okay," he said after a moment. "Since you clearly don't want to talk, I'm going to do the talking and you can listen. I know that this plan is shit and all. It's shit for everyone, especially you and Reed, but this shouldn't change anything. Reed isn't going to love you any less just because you're in different places, and I know there's going to be tons of times you dive into the ice cream tub in the middle of the night. Good think is I'm going to be there so you're not doing it on your own. Maybe it's a good think you haven't had a baby yet, because these people Reed's been meeting with, that Stark guy especially, seems like the kind of guy that would have you up and leave your kid behind as well. I know you and Reed would never do that, but I reckon he'd make a good go of trying to make you." He took her hand in hers, continuing when she looked up at him. "At the end of all this, you know that Vic's gonna be out of our lives for good, and that when we can come home, Reed's still going to love you just as much and you can go back to making a start on that family you guys want to badly. God knows you deserve it."

She gave him a watery smile, tightening the hold on his hand. "Johnny...that was...exactly what I needed to hear," she told him.

"I know, I have a wonderful insight," he said proudly. "I'd use it on myself but I really don't have any problems."

She laughed, and he put an arm around her. "I'm still sorry the test was negative," he told her.

"Yeah, me too," she agreed, putting her head on her brother's shoulder. "...but bad timing, right?"

"Right," he agreed. "But if you really feel like being a mom you can go back to bossing me around," he invited her, glad when he heard her laugh.


End file.
